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THE BOOK | 


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THE TWELVE 


MINOR PROPHETS, 


TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW. 


WITH 


A COMMENTARY, 


CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXEGETICAL. 


BY 


E, HENDERSON, D.D. 


WITH 


A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, 
BY 
E. P. BARROWS, 


HITCHCOCK PROFESSOR IN ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 


Unam quandam ac certam et simplicem sententiam ubique 
quezrendam esse. — MELANCHTHON. 


ANDOVER: 
. WARREN F. DRAPER. 


BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN. 
NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY. 
PHILADELPHIA: SMITH, ENGLISH & CO. 


1860. 


* 


BY W.F. rarer, 
In the Clerk’s Office of te Disrot Court forthe Distt of 


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PUBLISHER’S NOTE. 





THE increasing demand for the English edition of Dr. Henderson’s Com- 
mentary on the Minor Prophets, suggested an application to the author for 
permission to reprint it in this country. The following note contains his 
very kind and courteous consent : 


Mr. DRAPER: 
Dear Sir, — om 
Impressed with a sense of your honorable conduct in con- 
sulting me prior to the reprinting of a cheaper edition of my Commentary on The 
Minor Prophets, I feel no hesitation in granting you the sanction you desire, on the 
terms specified in your letter of November 4, 1856. 
I remain, dear Sir, 
Yours truly, 


E. HENDERSON, D. D. 
MortTiake, Surrey, Nov’r 20, 1856. 


P.S. Enclosed you will find a list of corrections, copied from my husband’s 
memoranda. 8. H. 


Not only have the corrections referred to been made in the present edition, 
but it was found desirable, also, to verify all the quotations in the Oriental 
languages, so that the whole work has now been thoroughly revised. This, 
with other causes, has contributed to delay the publication till the present 
time. We have to regret that, meanwhile, the venerable author has ceased 
from his labors, and passed to his reward. | 

It seems fitting that a short biographical sketch of his useful and event- 
ful life should accompany this volume, as a tribute to his memory among 
those who will receive the benefits of his studies and labors, but who may not 
have access to the full biography prepared by his friends. | 


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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. 





Tue lamented death of the author of the present Commentary occurred 
while the plates were in process of preparation for an American edition 
of the work. It seems highly proper, therefore, that a brief sketch of 
his life and character be prefixed to it. The writer of this, not having 
access to original sources of information, has drawn his materials from 
the “Memoir of the Rev. E. Henderson,” by his daughter, Thulia S. 
Henderson, which has lately been published in London. 

EBENEZER HENDERSON was born on the 17th day of November, 
1784, at Dunfermline, an ancient borough in the eastern part of Scot- 
land, situated in the county of Fife, a little north of the Firth of Forth, 
and well known as the residence of Anne of Denmark, and the birth- 
place of King Charles the First. He was the youngest son of George 
and Jean Henderson. His father was an agricultural laborer, and be- 
longed to the Secession-body of Scotch Presbyterians. “Two years at 
Dunfermline,” the memoir tells us, “and one year and a half at Dun- 
duff, formed the sum-total of his schooling” in the days of his boyhood. + 
Then, at twelve years old, it was resolved that he should be initiated 
into some trade. But it happened to him, as it has to others whom 
Providence had foreordained to fill religious and literary spheres, that 
one attempt after another proved abortive. First he was placed with 
an elder brother to learn the trade of a clock-and-watch-maker. But . 
here he staid only long enough to gain such an insight into the craft 
as was afterwards of no little use to him in his missionary wanderings, 
where recourse to a professed artisan for the rectification of his time- 
piece was impossible. He was next placed as an apprentice to a boot- 
and-shoe-maker for the space of three years. Of his progress in this 
business nothing is known. Only it is certain that “he had not yet 
found the niche in which he was to take his stand.” 


1 Memoir, p. 13. 


VI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


For this a spiritual preparation was needed. This, through the grace 
of the Holy Spirit, he received in the deep religious awakening that 
took place in connection with the labors of Robert and James Haldane, 
the latter of whom visited Dunfermline in company with Mr. Aikman. 

“A saw-pit at the top of Chalmers’ Street, and an open place in 
Woodhead Street, are remembered in connection with various out-door 
preachings to an assembled multitude. Many of the ungodly were awak- 
ened, and the godly were stirred up to works of good-doing. Sunday 
Schools were established, and they rapidly flourished. Of the ‘six’ 
that are recorded as having been in a prosperous state within the par- 
ishes of Dunfermline as early as 1798, there was one in which were 
enrolled the names of Ebenezer Henderson and Douglas Cusine (pro- 
nounced Cousin),— the two who are remembered as having borne the 
palm for diligence and attention.” 

This little incident shows the original aptitude of our author for the 
pursuits of a scholar. The precise time of his first open profession of 
religion is not known. But there is abundant evidence that from this 
period he devoted himself with all his soul to the service of Christ. The 
needful preparation for future duty was freely granted him in the Sem- 
inary in Edinburgh, which had been originated, and was still supported, 
by the generosity of Mr. Robert Haldane. The course of instruction 
was brief, extending only through two years. But this was then thought 
to be the utmost that was compatible with the urgent demand for home 
and foreign laborers. “Dr. Henderson always urged the importance of ' 
a prolonged collegiate course; and doubtless felt that had his own pre- 
paratory studies been of longer continuance, he might have gone forth 
better equipped for his work.”? So speaks the memoir; to which may be 
added, that it was only by a severe and long process of self-training, 
continued after he left the Seminary, that he was enabled to qualify 
himself for the work of a translator of the holy Scriptures, and a com- 
mentator on their contents, in which he became so distinguished. The 
class of 1803—the fifth in order of institution— was the one which he 
- joined. We -need not be surprised when we find one of his surviving 
fellow-students bearing testimony that he was at that time “more of a 
linguist than a theologian; more given to literature than to divinity.” 
No one can read his commentaries, so rich in oriental lore, without per- 
ceiving at a glance that it was the side of sacred literature rather than of 
systematic theology to which he was drawn by the natural affinities of his 
mind. To him the memoir justly applies the remark made of one of his con- 
temporaries, the late Rev. Alexander Dewar: “He could comprehend and 


1 Memoir, p. 17. 2 P. 23. 8 Rey. James Kennedy, of Inverness. 


OF THE AUTHOR. - VII 


seize the leading features of a complicated question, though he rarely, if 
ever, dealt in barren abstractions; strong, broad good sense was a distin- 
guishing element of his mind; he was a man of facts and fundamental 
principles.” * . 

In the vacations the seminary students were sent out on preaching- 
tours. We find him in the summer recess of 1804 appointed to visit 
the Orkney Islands, which lie off the northern extremity of Scotland. 
Thus was inaugurated that remarkable series of northern missions to 
which the providence of God, contrary to his own original intentions, 
had appointed him. 

In the second year of his seminary life he was called to the foreign 
service, in the following way: The Rev. John Paterson, pastor of a 
church at Cambuslang, and the Rev. Archibald McLaey, pastor at Kir- 
caldy, having been invited by the two Congregational churches in Edin- 
burgh to go forth as missionary agents, resigned their charges, and came 
to Edinburgh for a brief course of preparatory study with special refer- 
ence to the service to which they had devoted themselves. Their desti- 
nation was India. But Mr. McLaey being by the circumstances of his 
family detained at home, Mr. Paterson’s friends urged him to select from 
among the seminary students a man for his colleague. As he surveyed 
the assembled class, he said of Mr. Henderson, then but twenty-one years 
of age, and with whom he had no previous acquaintance, “This is the 
man for me.” Thus commenced between the two missionaries a life- 
long friendship. As soon as Mr. Henderson made known his willingness 
to embark in this cause, his services were accepted, and the missionaries 
elect were set apart by the imposition of hands, with prayer and fasting, 
at an evening service in the Tabernacle, Leith Walk, on August 27, 
1805. 

But God, who understood perfectly the sphere in which these his two 
servants could best labor, had destined both to a northern instead of a 
tropical field. Here the following extract from a letter which he wrote 
on the subject some twelve years later, is perfectly in place: 

“ When I originally devoted myself to the Redeemer’s seryice, and 
entered on a course of study preparatory to engaging in “it, I had no 
specific station or sphere of labor in view; but was determined, in re- 
liance on his promised grace, cheerfully to proceed to. whatever place 
he should be pleased to point out to me, whether'at home in my native 
country, or among the heathen in a distant land... Accordingly, when our 
dear brother Paterson requested me to accompany him to: India, it was 
a matter of no great difficulty for me to give my consent to his proposal.” # 


1 Memoir, p. 25. 





Vill BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


This delightful passage shows that he was willing to be guided. And 
let it be said, for the encouragement of all youthful candidates, that God 
will certainly guide all who are willing to be guided, into the field in 
which they can serve him to the best advantage. The two missionary 
brethren had marked out India for their field, but God sent them into 
northern Europe. 

The directors of the East India Company were at that time, as is 
well known, hostile to missionary labors among the people whom they. 
ruled. Messrs. Carey and Marshman, with some coadjutors, were indeed 
carrying on their good work without—molestation, but with no open sanc- 
tion on the part of the directors, Such a sanction the Messrs. Haldane 
openly sought for themselves and others, and were decidedly refused, 
and the door was thus closed to their intended enterprise. “ The British 
possessions,” says the memoir, “ were not approachable by a Christian 
missionary in a British vessel. But there were Danish ships in which 
such men could embark; there were Danish settlements where they could 
effect a landing, and whence they could proceed to some neighboring dis- 
tricts, whose governors might be disposed, if not to sanction, at least to 
ignore the efforts that might be made.”! They accordingly repaired to 
Copenhagen, in the hope of securing a passage thence to Serampore. 
But here disappointment awaited them. One vessel only was to sail 
that season, and every berth was preéngaged. They offered to go in 
the steerage; even that was full. 

Meanwhile they found all around them a field white for the harvest. 
Although as yet ignorant of the Danish language, they had already 
commenced a service in the English tongue the second Sabbath after 
their arrival. Next they procured the translation into Danish of a tract 
entitled “The One Thing Needful,” and forthwith set it in active cir- 
culation. Their English congregation increased, and they had secured, 





early in November, the translation and printing of one thousand copies 
of the “ Great Question Answered.” « Still hoping to be able the ensuing 
spring to embark for Serampore, they earnestly urged upon their friends 
at home the importance of not leaving their present field unoccupied when 
they should be withdrawn from it. In reply they received a letter inform- 
ing them that but one of the two fields, India or Denmark, could be at 
present occupied, and urging that they should consent to remain in their 
present position. They complied ; and thus they found themselves, without 
any planning of their own, inaugurated into the Danish field. The two 
friends soon separated, Mr. Paterson remaining in Copenhagen, and Mr. 
Henderson going to Elsineur. : 


1 Memoir, p. 41. 


OF THE AUTHOR. IX 


At Elsineur he gave lessons, in private families and classes, in the English 
language, while at the same time he sedulously devoted himself to the 
acquisition of the Danish, and the other northern languages, which, when 
once mastered, would greatly enlarge the circle of his influence. As the 
sphere of his vision widened, he turned his thoughts towards Sweden, and 
he and his companion determined to gain satisfactory information concerning 
the spiritual condition of this kingdom, as well as of Denmark. Mr. Hen- 
derson repaired to Helsingburgh in the southern part of Sweden, with a 
supply of religious publications. Next, he and his colleague journeyed 
through Skonen, leaving tracts at Lund and Malmé, in the hands of such 
as were likely to translate them into Swedish. After this they undertook 
an exploring tour in Denmark. Crossing the Great Belt and the Little 
Belt, they advanced as far as the Moravian settlement at Christiansfeld, in 
Schleswig. In one respect this journey was of striking importance, by 
bringing them personally into connection with the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, and also turning their attention towards Iceland. Learning that 
the Fiinen Evangelical Society was purposing to print two thousand copies 
of the New Testament for their long-neglected fellow-subjects in Iceland, 
they ventured to suggest that five thousand instead of two thousand should 
be the number struck off for the first instalment. The Danes not having 
courage for this, it was determined that assistance should be sought from 
London. The two friends accordingly wrote directly to the managers of 
the Bible Society in the British metropolis, who agreed to defray the cost 
of the additional three thousand copies. 

The war which took place in 1807 between England and Denmark, com- 
pelled the two missionaries to withdraw to Sweden. Mr. Henderson took 
up his residence at Gottenburgh, while Mr. Paterson proceeded to Stockholm, 
where he was eminently successful in-organizing systematic efforts for the 
circulation of Swedish Bibles and tracts. The ensuing summer of 1808, the 
two friends travelled in Sweden and Lapland, inquiring into the state of the 
parishes, and scattering the seeds of divine truth. Having reached Tornea, 
at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, they entered Finland, and, turning around 
the gulf, proceeded till they were close upon Wasa, when the approach of a 
Russian army compelled them to a hasty retreat back around the head of 
the same gulf. In October they reached their respective stations, after a 
journey of two thousand three hundred miles. This tour gave them an 
affecting insight into the spiritual wants of the people. In many parishes 
there was on an average only one Bible in every eighth house,—the wealthy 
and middle classes only being able to possess a copy, while the cottagers 
remained, from poverty, destitute of this treasure. 

During all Mr. Henderson’s residence in Denmark and Sweden, he was, 

2 


x BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


along with his missionary labors, busily prosecuting his studies in Hebrew and 
Greek, as well as in German, Danish, and Swedish. We have already seen 
how he first became interested in the enterprise for furnishing Iceland with 
the word of God. Of the five thousand copies of the Icelandic New Tes- 
tament that had been printed, as noticed above, fifteen thousand had been 
sent off before the breaking out of the war between England and Denmark. 
The remaining three thousand five hundred were lying in store, ready for 
shipment. For some time the prosecution of the enterprise was unavoidably 
interrupted. But at last, in 1810, it seemed possible to resume it. The 
Bible Society having authorized one of the two missionaries to visit Iceland 
in person, while the other should forward the printing of the Bibles that were 
to follow, Mr. Henderson was designated for the tour in Iceland. This 
occasioned a preliminary visit to England, where he spent the summer 
of 1810 among his old friends: He returned to Sweden in October, but 
various circumstances delayed his visit to Iceland, so that he was at liberty 
to spend two years more at Gottenburgh. 

“It was early in the year 1811, and probably as the result of arrangements 
made with the Edinburgh publisher, or with some Edinburgh friend, when in 
Scotland during the previous summer, that Mr. Henderson’s earliest literary 
production, the first fruits of his German studies, left the press; viz., a trans- 
lation of Roos’s ‘ Exposition of Daniel.’”+ The rules laid down by Roos as 
canons for the interpretation of prophecy were adopted and adhered to by 
Dr. Henderson to the last; and thus this initial work seems to have exerted 
an important influence upon him as an expounder of prophecy. 

But to return to the Icelandic Bible. Mr. Paterson was about to start for 
Russia on a Bible mission, and it became necessary, to expedite the work, 
that Mr. Henderson should obtain leave of entrance into Denmark, and then 
repair to Copenhagen, where he could urge on the printer and the reviser of 
the press in their daily work. His application the King of Denmark referred 
to the Chancery. The Chancery, after some delay, sent the petition back to 
his majesty, with a strong recommendation that it should be granted, and the 
royal assent was accordingly given. But annoying delays occurred in con- 
nection with the printing that remained to be done, as well as heavy expenses 
arising from the depreciation of the Danish currency, and the exorbitant 
war prices charged upon every article of food. ; 

“ The two years which were thus spent by him in the Danish capital, would 
have been tedious, had there not been great facilities in that city for the con- 
tinuance of other labors. The translation of ‘The Warning Voice,’ and 
‘The End of Time’ into Icelandic, was effected beneath his eye, as also that 
of the tract entitled ‘ Serious Considerations’ into Danish. In preparation for 


1 Memoir, p. 84. 


OF THE AUTHOR. XI 


his contemplated journey, he was studying the language and ecclesiastical 
history of Iceland.”! 

So the memoir; and in addition to this, it adds that he was also prosecuting 
vigorously the study of Hebrew. “A Morocco Jew,” says he, in a letter 
dated Dec. 1, 1812, “who has a beautiful pronunciation, reads a Hebrew 
chapter with me the one day, and I read an English chapter with him the 
other. I begin to speak a little with him in Hebrew.”? Having received a 
suggestion from his friend Mr. Paterson, when on a visit to him in Sweden 
in March 1814, that when his Icelandic mission was completed he “ might find 
bible-work to do in the regions to the north and west of Russia,” he imme- 
diately began to turn his attention to the languages of those regions. About 
the same time, also, we find that he began the study of Arabic. He speaks 
of it as “remarkably easy, the structure being so much like the Hebrew, and 
there being so many Hebrew words in it.” “The Grammar,” he says, “ will 
be an easy task. Its richness in words will be the principal difficulty.” ° 

An object which Mr. Henderson earnestly desired to see effected before 
leaving the country was the organization of the earliest Bible Society in Den- 
mark. This good work he was permitted to see accomplished under very 
favorable auspices, one of the rooms of the episcopal palace being offered 
for the purpose, and the meeting being attended by several men of high 
eminence. Soon after “this launching of Denmark’s life-ark,” all the need- 
ful preparations having been at last made, Mr. Henderson embarked for 
Iceland on the eighth of June, 1814. ‘The freight of Bibles,” says the 
-memoir, “had been subdivided, and the several packages forwarded during 
the spring to seven of the principal Icelandic ports, — an arrangement 
adopted by reason of the difficulty that would have attended their trans- 
mission across the interior of the island. The treaty of Kiel, in January 
1814, had effectually done away with the restrictions and risks incident to 
the late war; and the Icelandic ship-owners had displayed a patriotic lib- 
erality in conveying the books free of expense.”* After a five weeks’ pas- 
sage, he arrived in safety at Reykiavik, on the south-western coast of Iceland, 
and was well received by Bishop Vidalin, by his step-son, Sysselmand Thor- 
grimson, by Mr. Knudsen the Danish merchant, and several men of note in 
the Icelandic metropolis. 

Mr. Henderson’s printed account, entitled “Iceland, or the Journal of a 
Residence in that Island,” is so copious, and so well known to the public, 
that it is not necessary to enter into the details of his journeyings. Suffice 
it to say, that in three journeys, each from Reykiavik as a point of departure, 
he explored the whole island, travelling not less than two thousand six hun- 


1 Memoir, p. 117. 3 P. 182. 5 In two vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1818. 
2 P. 118. 4 P. 137. 


XII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


dred miles, ascertaining the spiritual condition of the people, and everywhere 
making efficient arrangements for the distribution of the word of God. 

“In almost every hamlet there was new proof that such effort was needed ; 
in each hamlet, proof also that the effort would meet with response on the 
part of willing purchasers. Here was a parish in which a folio Bible, greatly 
injured by use, had all its defective pages accurately supplied by the pen of a 
common peasant; and there another, whose lent copy had so long been 
retained by the islanders of Grimsey, that the right of its possession had 
become a disputed point. One copy in an island; two in a parish; twelve 
among two hundred people; six among two hundred and fifty; a clergyman 
seeking for seventeen long years to possess a copy of his own, and hitherto 
unable to secure the treasure; peasants who had offered, but offered in vain, 
to the amount of five-and-twenty shillings for a copy ;— such are the inci- 
dents that crowd upon the page. The Testaments sent over in 1807 and 1812, 
were traced to their destination, but were found to have gone a very little 
way towards meeting the extensive demand. * * * The general intelligence 
of the people rendered their need of Scripture the more obvious. In a par- 
ish of four hundred, where all who were above eight years old had been 
taught to read, there might well be a universal desire for the Book of books.”4 

In the month of July, 1815, the initial steps were taken at Reykiavik which 
resulted in the formation of the Icelandic Bible Society, an institution which 
still exists, and, according to the latest communications, received several 
years since, had issued in all above ten thousand Bibles and Testaments. 
Having finished his work of exploration, Mr. Henderson sailed for Copenha- 
gen, where he arrived Sept. 6, 1815. In bringing to a close the notice of 
this visit to Iceland, it is pertinent to add, that, while zealously and energeti- 
cally executing his commission as agent of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, he improved every opportunity to make himself acquainted with the 
remarkable natural phenomena of that wonderful island. 

“ He, in consequence, visited and inspected with ardent and indefatigable 
zeal the awfully sublime, yea, often terrific scenes, which abound in that land * 
of volcanoes, in which often a strange conflict is seen between the elements 
of fire and water — between boiling hot springs and all the cold and freezing 
changes of snow and ice. There we find our traveller climbing up and 
descending mountains, standing between thundering masses of melting lava — 
and rushing floods, and exhibiting an indomitable courage, amounting, in the 
opinion of his hardy Icelandic guides, to almost a provocation of dangers so 
immediate and threatening, that even a spectator at a distance could scarcely 
refrain from mingled feelings of admiration of his courage and calm self- 
possession, amidst surrounding scenes of horror, and of disapproval and 


1 Memoir, p. 155. 


-OF THE AUTHOR. XIII 


condemnation of a spirit of presumption, exposing health and life to needless 
risk and sacrifice. * * * Yet this very boldness, nay, rashness, enabled him 
to witness and describe scenes which few, if any, of his predecessors in 
travel had dared to approach so near, and to observe so closely.”? 

It should be added that Mr. Henderson, being a good Icelandic scholar, was 
thus enabled freely to converse with all classes of the native population, from 
the learned clergy and gentry to the illiterate farmer and day-laborer. ‘“ Thus 
joyfully and manfully proceeding on his errand of mercy, he was treated by 
high and low, by the clergy and the laity, in the most respectful manner. He 
was most kindly and hospitably entertained, often accompanied part of the 
way by those who had afforded him in their houses every accommodation and 
comfort in their power; or provided with safe guides, and dismissed with 
prayers, benedictions, and other affecting marks of the liveliest gratitude and 
Christian affection, by our Icelandic brethren, — and which they desired to 
evince to one who had been sent to them from a far distant nation as a mes- 
senger of peace, and an angel of mercy, with the gift of that Holy Book, 
which had already proved to millions, and would in time to come prove to 
generations yet unborn, an inexhaustible source of the purest instruction, 
and the most solid consolation.” ? 

From his return to Copenhagen in September 1815, to October of the fol- 
lowing year, Mr. Henderson Was assiduously employed in journeying through 
Denmark and the adjacent regions of Pomerania and northern Germany, 
being, as he expressed it, “constantly on the wing.” Wishing for a season 
of rest, he had already bespoken his passage to Leith, in Scotland, with the 
hope of spending some time among his friends at home, when he received 
notice of an appointment to visit St. Petersburgh, on an agency for the Brit- 
ish and Foreign Bible Society. A letter written to Mr. Paterson under date 
of October 22, 1816, gives a delightful revelation of his feelings in view of 
this sudden change in his plans, and of his whole-hearted devotion to the 
cause of Christ. He says: 

‘¢ What a complete change has instantaneously been effected in my plans! 
I imagined my continental labors were at a close for this season; had spent 
about eight days with my friends here in Altona; bespoke my passage on 
board one of the smacks for Leith; made every needful preparation for my 
departure, and was fondly dreaming of domestic enjoyments, when all at 
once I heard a voice behind me saying, ‘ This is the way, walk ye init.’ I 
‘turned to the voice that spake unto me,’ and behold, my path was plain be- 
fore me. Instead of Edinburgh, I was to regard St. Petersburgh as the place 
of my destination. On Sabbath last, after preaching my first sermon on 


1 Rev. Dr. Steinkopff, as quoted in memoir, p. 105. 
2 Dr. Steinkopff, as quoted above, p. 106. 


XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


Lot’s wife, I received two letters from London, one five, the other only six 
days old, urging the necessity of my repairing without a moment’s delay to 
St. Petersburgh, with the view of strengthening your hands in the work of 
the Lord.”! 

Of course he complied without hesitation, and wrote to the committee in 
London: “ Had I not come to the determination instantly to comply with 
your request, how could I have borne the cutting reflection, ‘Demas hath 
» forsaken me, having loved the present world ?’” 2 

In the middle of December we find him in the Russian capital, where his 
labors, after he had been duly initiated by Mr. Paterson (who was preparing 
for a temporary absence), date from about the commencement of the year 
1817. Here he entered upon “ another man’s line of things made ready to 
his hand,” for Mr. Paterson was an efficient Bible agent. 

“ The task was multiform. It consisted in seeing to the corrections of the 
proofs as they left the press, and in superintending the town-issue of those 
Scriptures, or portions of Scripture, that were already in stock; in trans- 
mitting copies, when needful, to the associations already formed in various 
parts of the empire, and in corresponding with the Astrachan and other mis- 
sionaries about the translations or reéditions that were yet needed. French, 
Greek, Moldavian, Georgian, Calmuc, and other Bibles were in progress. 
Archimandrites and princes had to be consulfed; translators had to be con- 
ferred with; paper, types, and binding had to be cared for; the depdt to be 
looked after; and committee-meetings, of several hours in duration, to be 
attended.”? , 

How efficient was the Russian Bible Society at this period, may be inferred 
from the fact, that in a letter dated St. Petersburgh, June 8, 1817, Dr. Hen- 
derson states that from the establishment of the society, to the present time, 
its committee had “either published, or engaged in publishing, no fewer than 
forty-three editions of the sacred Scriptures, in seventeen different languages, 
forming a grand total of one hundred and ninety-six thousand copies.”+* 
Much of the success of the good cause he attributes to the warm patronage 
then extended by the Emperor Alexander to the Bible cause. 

An incident that occurred during this visit to St. Petersburgh deserves a 
passing notice, as a further illustration of his self-denying missionary spirit. 
He received in January 1817 a very urgent and unexpected call to join the 
mission which had: been projected by the London Missionary Society to the 
town of Irkutsk, in Siberia. Immediately he set apart a day for solemn self- 
examination and prayer with reference to his duty. The record he has left 
of this, shows how deep down into his soul the true spirit of Christianity had 
penetrated. The result of this prayerful deliberation was a decision to go on 


1 Memoir, p. 205. 2 P. 205. 3 P. 208. 4P. 219. 


OF THE AUTHOR. oA 


the mission, though he thereby renounced the fondly-cherished hope of a 
visit to his native country. But scarcely was this determination formed 
before he was called to reconsider it, on account of the strenuous efforts of 
the Bible Society to retain him in their employment; and this cost him a 
severer struggle than the first. But, with the same simplicity of purpose with 
which he had formed the resolve to go on the Irkutsk mission, he renounced 
it, and continued his labors in the service of the Bible Society. 

During the residence in St. Petersburgh that has just been noticed, he re- 
ceived from Copenhagen a document, sealed with the triangle and the seven- 
stringed lyre of the Scandinavian Literary Society, nominating him one of 
its corresponding members. In the month of June following, a diploma was 
forwarded from Kiel, conferring upon him the title of Doctor in Philosophy. 

The return of Dr. Paterson, in August, left him at liberty to revisit his 
native land, where he arrived in December, taking Stockholm, Copenhagen, 
and other places belonging to the field of his former labors, on his route. 

The earliest news that reached Dr. Henderson upon his return to England 
was the tidings of his mother’s death. His father’s decease had occurred 
during his Icelandic explorations. Repairing to Edinburgh, he wrote the 
concluding part of his work on Iceland, and superintended the printing of the 
same. In the end of April, 1818, his volumes left the press, bearing a dedi- 
cation to Prince Christian Frederic, of Denmark. So favorably were they 
received, that a second edition was soon called for, and an abridgment was 
published at a later date in the United States. 

Soon afterwards (May 19) he was united in marriage to Miss Susannah 
Kennion, the daughter of Mr. John Kennion, in whom he found a compan- 
ion of cultivated mind and congenial spirit, every way worthy of himself. 
The ensuing summer he spent in travelling for the Bible Society through 
England and Scotland. On Monday, Sept. 28, he, with his companion, set 
sail from Leith, on his third continental journey. It was intended that after 
revisiting the Hanoverian and Holstein auxiliaries, he should winter at Co- 
penhagen, then pass, vid Norway, to St. Petersburgh, and finally take up his 
abode at Astrachan, on the Caspian Sea, where rooms were already assigned 
him in the Mission House, and whither the bulk of his luggage was at once 
forwarded, to await his expected arrival. Such was the plan. He was now 
in the zenith of his popularity and influence as a Bible agent, and to human 
appearance everything promised a favorable issue. But, as in the beginning 
of his missionary career, so now he had to learn once more that God’s ways 
are not man’s ways. To him it happened, as it has to many other eminent 
servants of God, that, in the full tide of success, a series of reverses was to be 
encountered, by which his Christian activity should be turned into another 
channel, where, doubtless, God saw that his labors could best subserve the 


XVI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


cause of his kingdom. When, in carrying out the plan above sketched, the 
time had arrived for his long-planned journey to Norway, he started from 
Gottenburgh on this expedition “in a small country conveyance, so low built 
that its structure naturally suggested a notion of perfect security. “It is 
hardly bigger than a wheelbarrow; if it were upset, you could scarcely be 
hurt, was the remark casually made.”! But he had that very day to learn that 


* Safety consists not in escape 
From dangers of a frightful shape.” 


About mid-day, the little vehicle was upset, and the traveller’s shoulder and. 
the radius of the fore-arm were dislocated and otherwise injured. Unable to 
bear the motion of a carriage, he was conveyed to the river near by, and 
taken back along the Gotha Elf. Eventually, the bones in the fore-arm lost 
their power of flexion and rotation, and the delay which the accident had 
occasioned left no time for the journey to Norway. 

Dr. Henderson proceeded to St. Petersburgh, which place was reached on 
the 11th of September, 1819. The studies which occupied the closing months 
of 1819, like those of the preceding winter at Copenhagen, consisted in the 
mastering of the Turkish, Tatar, and Persic languages, all of which would 
be needed for his anticipated Astrachan labors, upon which he hoped to enter 
the ensuing season. But a delay of a whole year was occasioned by the 
death of Dr. Paterson’s wife, which made it necessary that the bereaved hus- 
band should have a temporary respite from his services at the Russian capi- 
tal. It was not till March 1821 that Drs. Paterson and Henderson could 
arrange to start with Mr. Seroff, one of the committee, on their projected 
visit of exploration. Leaving St. Petersburgh, they proceeded, by Novgorod 
and Tver, to Moscow; thence, by Kalouga and Koursk, to Pultawa, the field 
so fatal to the Swedish hero; thence, by Tchernigov and Kiev, to Odessa, on 
the Black Sea. After this they made an eight days’ Crimean trip, spending 
the Sabbath at Akhtiar, the modern Sevastopol. Thence they journeyed 
eastward to Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof, where Dr. Henderson was seized 
with an ague which clung to him with pertinacity during all the remainder 
of his journey. Crossing the Don, they entered Asia, and finally reached 
the long-looked-for Astrachan on the 13th of August, where a great part of , 
Dr. Henderson’s furniture and library were awaiting his permanent residence. 

Starting again from Astrachan, on the first of October, on their way 
towards Persia, they crossed the Caucasian mountains; but, when they had 
advanced as far as Tiflis, their expedition was brought to a close by a differ- 
ence of opinion between them and the Bible Society, which resulted in their 
tendering their resignation as its accredited agents. This had respect to Ali 


1 Memoir, p. 239. 


OF THE AUTHOR. XVII 


Bey’s Turkish version of the New Testament, with which the two friends 
were dissatisfied on grounds the validity of which was afterwards recognized, 
at least in a practical way, by the managers of the Bible Society. Recross- 
ing the Caucasus, and ordering the goods which had arrived at Astrachan to 
be repacked and sent to St. Petersburgh, they hastened back to the Russian 
capital, which they reached early in February 1822. Here they were imme- 
diately retained in the service of the Russian Bible Society. To this Dr. 
Henderson devoted the last three years of his residence in Russia. It was 
‘not long before symptoms of a deep-laid scheme of opposition to the Bible 
cause began to manifest themselves. ‘The plot, according to Dr. Paterson, 
embraced not only Greek ecclesiastics, but others of high eminence, among 
whom he names Metternich, the great Austrian diplomatist. To trace 
the history of this conspiracy against the word of truth, would be out 
of place in the present brief notice. How successful it was in the end, we 
all know. The Emperor Alexander remained personally friendly to the 
agents; but so limited had become the operations of the society, with no 
prospect of any enlargement in the future, that, in the spring of 1825, Dr. 
Henderson sought and obtained, through Prince Galitzin, the emperor’s per- 
mission to resign his office. No time was lost in making arrangements for the 
homeward voyage, and on the the 5th of July, 1825, he and his were safely 
landed in the British metropolis. Dr. Paterson tarried a little longer, but he 
too was tompelled to withdraw; and upon the accession of the Emperor 
Nicholas, all operations at the Bible House were speedily suspended, at least 
so far as concerned the distribution of the Scriptures to Russian subjects. 
“It only remains to be hoped,” adds the memoir, “that the day may come 
when the second Alexander shall emulate the Christian graces and religious 
benevolence of the imperial relative whose name he bears; and that the 
house of Romanoff may yet be linked with Russia’s highest and best pros- 
perity.”} 

It ought to be added that, during his last three years’ residence in St. Peters- 
burgh, the Ethiopic was the language to which Dr. Henderson particularly 
devoted himself. 

*« Among his papers, and dated April, 1823, is a neatly-executed collation 
of St. John’s Gospel, in the Ethiopic, as preserved in manuscript in the Pub- 
lic Imperial Library. His standard of comparison was the Ethiopic of the 
London Polyglott, and each instance of a various reading appears to be 
noted down in its order.” 2 

But he did not content himself with being simply a student of God’s word, 
and an agent for its distribution. He sought opportunity to preach it also. 
Turning his attention to the English sailors at Cronstadt, he began to preach 


1 Memoir, pp. 299, 300. 2 P. 276. 


XVilIl BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


there regularly beneath the Bethel flag, going out on Saturday and returning 
on the Monday’s boat. The interest which he thus felt in seamen was cher- 
ished after his return to his native land, and he was often employed in advo- 
cating their cause on the platform or from the pulpit. 

_ With Dr. Henderson’s return to England, his missionary labors, extending 
over a term of twenty years, were brought to a close. We are now to con- 
template him in the character of a teacher and an author. The decease of 
Rey. Dr. Bogue, in October 1826, left vacant the Theological Tutorship of 
the Missionary College at Hoxton, which was under the supervision of the 
Directors of the London Missionary Society. On the recommendation of 
several friends, Dr. Henderson was invited to take provisional charge of the 
missionary students, until some permanent arrangement could be made. Here 
he so approved himself to the Directors, that, in the following spring, they 
agreed on inviting him to accept the permanent tutorship in that institution. 
Thus, by one of those easy movements which are so characteristic of God’s 
providential government, he was quietly inducted into an office for the fulfil- 
ling of whose duties he had been for years unconsciously qualifying himself. 
It was not, however, without hesitation, that he consented to occupy this re- 
sponsible situation. In a letter addressed to the treasurer of the society, 
while the question of his acceptance was still pending, he says: 

“ Though I can truly say that nothing would give me greater delight than 
to be in any way instrumental in preparing missionary candidates for the 
great and weighty office towards which their attention is directed, I do feel 
the duties and responsibilities attaching to the Theological Tutorship to be of 
so very serious a nature, that I should consider it the height of presumption 
in a mere stripling like myself to think of undertaking the task. 

“ Surely, my dear sir, the Directors are not aware that the course of study 
which I enjoyed before leaving Scotland was extremely limited; and that 
during the twenty years I have spent in foreign parts, my time has been so 
completely occupied with business of an altogether desultory kind, as to pre- 
clude the possibility of my giving any attention to the study of systematic 
theology.” + 

That the objection thus ingenuously stated by him was in itself weighty, 
need not be denied. ‘The fact, however, that he so felt its weight, is the best 
evidence that the Directors acted wisely in disregarding it. Had he been one 
of those men who are always boasting of their limited advantages in early life, 
instead of assiduously occupying themselves, as he did, in making amends for 
what was then deficient by the diligent improvement of all the means at their 
disposal, he would not have merited the confidence of the Directors. But, 
understanding that he was one who could master any subject to which he gave 


1 Memoir, pp. 307, 308. 


. 


OF THE AUTHOR. XIX 


close attention, and who would spare no pains to fit himself for the conscien- 
tious discharge of any duty he might be prevailed on to undertake, they, by 
their deputation, overcame his scruples, and induced his consent. He brought 
to his work not only a true missionary spirit, but also a rich fund of experi- 
ence. Hence he was able to enrich his lectares with apposite and forci- 
ble illustrations, which gave pointedness and weight to the maxims that he 
inculeated. First of all he sought to elevate the standard of piety among 
the missionary students. ‘ The business,” said he, “on which you go forth is 
of so unearthly a nature, —it has so immediately to do with God, the souls 
of men, and the eternal world, — that except you are influenced by motives 
drawn from these sources, you. must inevitably fail of becoming efficient 
laborers in the missionary field. It is not to learn languages, translate books, 
or introduce the arts and sciences of civilized life, that you go to the heathen. 
Whatever of this description may engage your attention, is merely subordi- 
nate and accessory. You go to instruct, to win, to save souls. To this 
everything must bend; to this everything must be laid under contribution. 
* * * And can you possibly expect to prove successful in such an enterprise, 
to enter heartily into it, or prosecute it with enthusiasm, vigor, and persever- 
ance, if your spirit be worldly, and your affections low and grovelling ?”? 
While thus giving, as was meet, the foremost place to the culture of the 
heart, he assiduously strove to foster a taste for theological and linguistic 
acquirements. The following extracts, from the pen of one who had access to 
Dr. Henderson’s class-room, will best illustrate his characteristics as a teacher: 

“ As a teacher, he brought nothing into the class-room which had not been 
carefully and even elaborately prepared. * * * It was rather his intense 
application and indomitable industry, than any extraordinary talent, that 
distinguished him. If by genius is meant the undoubted possession of the 
creative or inventive faculty, then genius was not the property of my friend. 
If anything, he was rather wanting in imagination. * * * He never indulged 
much in illustration, and his illustrations never partook of the daring of 
genius. But if, on the other hand, ‘ genius is the instinct of enterprise, and 
if the instinct of enterprise is labor, then, in this sense, my honored friend 
was the possessor of this mighty gift. * * * As Dr. Henderson was not a 
man who lived without a purpose, so neither was he a man to spend his hours 
without a plan. His time was faithfully divided ; and in each division he had 
his self-appointed round of duties and engagements, to which he devoted 
himself with unwearied and strenuous perseverance. His lectures were the 
result of extensive reading and careful investigation. * * * He excelled in 
weighing evidence, and impressing upon it its relative value. His discrimi- 
nation was clear, and his judgment was sound. He was wholly free from 


1 Memoir, p. 319. 


xX BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


theory and speculation. He dealt with fact, not with fiction. He searched 
for data, not for opinions. His conclusions rested on the most solid basis. 
His theology was rather scriptural than scholastic; and his prelections were 
rather practical than brilliant. * * * In the Oriental languages, and in Bib- 
lical criticism, Dr. Henderson was at home. As a philologist, he had few 
equals in this country. He composed a Hebrew Grammar of his own, and 
allowed the students to copy it piecemeal from his own manuscript; and in 
the reading and interpreting of the Hebrew Scriptures he revelled with un- 
bounded delight. Equally wide and correct was his acquaintance with the 
cognate languages, and this knowledge eminently qualified him for a freer 
and more independent exhibition of the sacred text. 

‘Himself a man of intense application and labor, and knowing from his 
own experience that there is no other path to success and to eminence, he 
loved the men who were willing to make the effort and endure the toil of an 
ascent. If he did not, like the immortal Chatham, trample difficulties under 
his feet, he could, in the exercise of a purer faith, at least smile at them. 
Sloth and sluggishness were alien to his own nature, and he had no sympathy 
with idleness in his students. * * * He had a high appreciation of merit. 
Like every one possessed of richer gifts and wider attainments, he was a man 
of generous soul; and wherever he discovered the buddings and burstings of 
superior talent, he had at command his word of encouragement, or his smile 
of approval. He was not lavish in his expressions of praise; but his whole 
manner embodied more than words; it was only in those cases in which the 
proofs of neglect and idleness were too plain to be denied, that his fine open 
brow ever became darkened with a frown, and that his utterance became 
more sharply peinted, and his words fell with a keener edge. Dr. Hender- 
son was a strict disciplinarian, and so far as his influence reached, nothing 
was allowed to invade the majesty of law. He believed in God, and there- 
fore he believed in order. Yet this never chilled those warmer charities 
which have their seat and centre in the heart.” } 

After four years of labor in the Missionary College at Hoxton, Dr. Hen- 
derson received, in Feb. 1830, an appointment to the Theological Tutorship in 
the Ministerial College at Highbury. This he accepted without hesitation, 
as it opened to him a wider sphere, and he knew that the missionary direc- 
tors were contemplating the discontinuance of their institution, the number 
of missionary candidates not being such as to warrant the outlay incurred, 
and the different ministerial colleges being disposed to facilitate the entrance 
of missionary students within their walls. 

His connection with the college at Highbury was continued till the spring 
of 1850, when, upon the amalgamation of the three metropolitan colleges at 


1 Rey. Robert Ferguson, D.D., as quoted in the memoir, pp. 828—827. 


OF THE AUTHOR. XXI 


Homerton, Coward, and Highbury, his labors as a teacher in a public insti- 
tution were brought to a close. Of his services at Highbury it is only neces- 
sary to say that they were of the same general character as those at Hoxton. 
“He never forgot at Highbury,” says his biographer, “that he had been tutor 
at Hoxton. It was seldom that he had not missionary students in one or 
other of his classes. Over all such he kept a jealous watch, lest their pulpit 
popularity should tempt them to retract their pledge, and withdraw their 
hand from the plough. For the benefit of such, he was always ready to 
spare an extra hour, if tuition in some Oriental language might be of profit 
to them in their future career.” 1 

Dr. Henderson’s hospitalities to foreigners are well known, and remem- 
bered with great delight. Many were the literary men, especially from the 
western hemisphere, who enjoyed the pleasure of his society for a few hours 
of profitable intercourse. 

Tn 1852, two years after his removal from the tutorship at Highbury, Dr. 
Henderson was induced to undertake the pastorate of the Independent Con- 
gregation of Sheen Vale Chapel, at Mortlake, in Surrey. Upon the discharge 
of his pastoral duties he entered zealously, and with great delight. To preach 
Christ crucified was his chosen work, and during the whole period of his 
tutorship, he had continued it as he had opportunity. But the service evi- 
dently exceeded his present strength. In September, 1853, after having held 
the pastorate for only a year and a quarter, he was compelled to relinquish 
it, and take his place as a private member among his people. 

From this time his health and mental vigor gradually declined, till, on the 
16th day of May, 1858, he peacefully departed from this life, at Mortlake, 
the scene of his closing public labors, when he had now attained the age of 
seventy-three years. 


It remains to take a brief survey of Dr. Henderson’s labors as an author, 
especially as a commentator, in which character he is best known in the 
United States. 

During his labors at Hoxton he found time to carry through the press his 
“ Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia.” To the Congregational Mag- 
azine he became a contributor, and occasionally furnished articles or reviews, 
drawn for the most part from materials that were lying ready for use. At 
Highbury he prepared and printed an elaborate examination of the cele- 
brated passage, 1 Tim. ili. 16. It was entitled, “The Great Mystery of 
Godliness Incontrovertible.” Upon the republication, in 1833, of “ Buck’s 
Theological Dictionary,” he prepared for it five hundred new articles, while 
the already existing notices on Christian sects were carefully brought up to 


1 Memoir, pp. 348, 349. 


XXII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


the date of this re-issue. Abbott’s “Corner Stone” underwent revision at 
his hand, and the English editions of Prof. Stewart’s Commentaries also 
passed under his eye. In 1836 appeared his well-known treatise on “ Divine 
Inspiration,” which has passed through several editions. Ata later period, 
after his labors at Highbury had been brought to a close, he superintended 
the republication of five works from the pen of the Rev. Albert Barnes, 
prefixing prefaces of his own to two of them, viz., the Commentaries on the 
books of Job and Revelation. The other works were, “ Notes on the Book 
of Daniel,” “'The Way of Salvation,” and “ Essays on Science and The- 
ology.” 

Passing by other works of minor importance published or edited by him, 
we come to his Commentaries. The first of these, on the Prophet Isaiah, 
appeared in the year 1840, when the author was now fifty-six years of age. 
It was the result of long, patient, earnest study. This book had sometimes 
formed the basis of his readings with the fourth year’s class at college, and he 
justly felt that something further was needed in the way of elucidating it. 
Vitringa was too prolix; Lowth far from satisfactory, and abounding in 
many needless and conjectural emendations of the text. The modern Ger- 
man commentaries were all more or less tainted with neology ; and the com- 
mentaries of Barnes and Alexander, in this country, had not yet appeared. 
It is stated by the biographer that “some four or five years seem to have 
been occupied in the actual compiling of the volume.”! This commentary, 
like all the succeeding, he terms, “ critical, philological, and exegetical.” In 
the first of these departments, criticism of the sacred text, he steadfastly 
abides by the ordinary text, where there is no overwhelming amount of man- 
uscript evidence in favor of some other reading. In his philological remarks 
he makes an abundant yet sober use of the cognate languages, relying, first 
of all, on a collation of the several passages in which a given word occurs in 
the sacred text, and having recourse to the cognate tongues only as a supple- 
mentary aid. In the exegetical department it is his aim to evolve the exact 
scope and force of the prophetic declarations as at first uttered, and under a 
full view of the circumstances that attended their utterance. 

The same general characteristics belong to the present commentary on 
the “ Minor Prophets,” which appeared next in order, in the year 1845, 
This is the most learned and elaborate of all his works. In the wonderful 
diversity of style and manner by which each of the twelve Minor Prophets 
is so clearly distinguished from all the rest,—a diversity very apparent in 
the English version, but displaying itself in its full beauty only to him who 
reads them in the original,— Dr. Henderson’s pen found a fine field of ex- 
ercise, which it did not fail to improve in a very thorough way. It is stated 


1 Memoir, p. 390. 


OF THE AUTHOR. xXx 


by the biographer that the popularity of this work among the students of the 
sacred text “has been fully as great as was that of his ‘ Isaiah,’ — among the 
Americans even greater.”! This is due partly, perhaps, to its greater in- 
trinsic merit, but still more to the paucity of commentaries on the Minor 
Prophets, that unite rich and varied learning with the pure evangelical spirit. 

It was after his retirement from Highbury that his commentaries on Jere- 
miah and Ezekiel appeared — the former in 1851, the latter in 1855. These 
are of a less elaborate character. 

“The Commentary on Jeremiah contained, as it required, a proportion- 
ately smaller number of notes than had been needful in the preceding vol- 
umes. But the notes which it did thus contain have been deemed by no 
means inferior to those of an earlier date, either in thought or expression. 
* * * The five lamentations, or elegies, of the prophet, are appropriately in- 
cluded in the work.” ? 

Of the book of the prophet Ezekiel it can hardly be said that for its 
full illustration it required fewer notes than Isaiah or the Minor Prophets. 
The brevity of Dr. Henderson’s commentary on this book is ascribed in the 
biography to the fact that “the tide of life was receding, and the fulness of 
life’s labors was diminishing.”? It must not be supposed, however, that the 
matter which it contains is of an inferior quality. It embodies the results 
mainly of his previous investigations, stated in a clear and perspicuous 
manner, though the biblical student could wish for fuller discussions of some 
points. } 


To the above sketch, drawn from the materials furnished by the biography, 
with only here and there the addition of a passing reflection, it may be proper 
to add, by way of independent judgment, a single general criticism on Dr. 
Henderson as an expounder of prophecy. In perusing his commentaries, not 
a few will feel that he carries to an unwarrantable extent the principle of 
restricting the prophetic declarations and delineations to specific events. This 
makes necessary the assumption of very abrupt transitions backwards and for- 
wards, where it would seem that the principle of a progressive fulfilment — 
“first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear ” — would have 
the double advantage of being in harmony with all that we know of the plan 
of God’s government, and also of carrying the interpreter consistently through 


_1 Memoir, p. 417. The present is a reprint from the English edition, with the exception 
of some few corrections furnished by Dr. Henderson himself. With the exception of the 
Ethiopic, the quotations from the cognate languages with which the commentary abounds, 
as also those from the Greek and Latin, have been corrected by a comparison with the 
original sources. 
2 Memoir, pp. 483, 434. 
8 P. 454. 


XXIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 


passages in which the near and more remote future are manifestly blended. 
For example, in Isa. 4: 1, the reference is undeniably to judgments near at 
hand ; in the verses that follow, the future glory and safety of the church are 
exhibited as following and effected by the mighty judgments of Jehovah 
codperating with the efficacions working of his Spirit. Both passages- are 
closely connected by the introductory words of verse 2: In that day.1 Dr. 
Henderson, in his commentary, makes a distinct chapter to begin with verse 
2, remarking that, ‘having depicted the wickedness of the Jews, and the 
awful judgments with which it would be punished, the prophet devotes this 
short chapter (chap. 4: 2—6) to an announcement of the glory and felicity 
of the Church in the time of the Messiah.” His note on the two introductory 
words is the following: “2. sanm 0493, at or after that periotl. The prep. 
2 does not always strictly express what is contained within any given time or 
space ; it also points out nearness, society, or accompaniment, that which is 
in connection with, or which follows upon something else. In prophetic vis- 
ion, the two states of adversity and prosperity were so closely connected, 
that one period might be said to comprehend them both.” The meaning of 
the last clause, taken in connection with what precedes, seems to be that the 
two states of prosperity and adversity are connected to the prophet’s vision, 
because he does not discern the wide interval of time which actually sepa- 
rates them. Would it not be a more exact statement to say that the prophet 
sees the two states of prosperity and adversity in connection, because they 
are thus connected in their inmost nature, being both parts of one indivisible 
whole, viz., the progress of God’s people through severe discipline, to peace 
and universal victory ; that, therefore, the predicted calamities which should 
befall the Jews in connection with their first captivity, though having a true 
historic fulfilment, yet stand as the representatives of like calamities to be 
repeated in their history, and that of the Christian Church, which is their 
true heir, as often as their sins shall make it necessary; and that the prom- 
ised future glory of God’s people, though having its perfect accomplishment 
only in the latter days of the Christian dispensation, yet includes in itself all 
previous deliverances and enlargements from the prophet’s day onward, even 
as the perfect day includes in itself the morning dawn which ushers it in, and 
is a part of it? 

To take another example: Dr. Henderson rightly regards Ezekiel’s temple- 
vision as a symbolic representation, the model presented being ideal, not that 
of an actual structure to be literally realized in all its details in the coming 
future. But for limiting its direct reference to the resettlement of the Jews 
in their own land, and the literal restoration of their sanctuary privileges 


1 san DPQ. 


OF THE AUTHOR. XXV 


and sacrificial institutes in the metropolis of Canaan, he seems to have no 
good warrant. The resettlement of the land of Canaan, and the rebuilding 
of the city and temple after the captivity, were only a part, and a very small 
part, of the “good things to come” which the vision shadowed forth. Its 
fulfilment belongs to the whole history of the church from Ezekiel’s day 
onward, and it will be completed only in that yet future day when God shall 
make good to the uttermost his ancient promise: “ O thou afflicted, tossed 
with tempest, and not comforted! behold I will lay thy stones with fair col- 
ors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows 
of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of precious stones. 
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the 
peace of thy children.”! Then shall the name of that spiritual city of God 
be called, in the fullest sense of the words, “‘ Tare LorRpD Is THERE.” 

Such would be the general criticism which we should offer on Dr. Hender- 
son’s commentaries. At the same time we should warmly commend them to 
the diligent study of the Biblical scholar, as rich sources of instruction and 
profit. 


1 Isaiah 54: 11—18. 
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GENERAL PREFACE. 





Tue Minor Prophets are first mentioned as the Twelve by Jesus the Son 
of Sirach.!. Under this designation, they also occur in the Talmudic tract, 
entitled Baba Bathra ;* and Jerome specifies, as the eighth in the second 
division of the sacred books of the Jews, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, 
which, he says, they call Thereasar.2 Melito, who is the first of the Greek 
Fathers that has left us a catalogue of these books, uses precisely the same 
langdage.* That they were regarded as forming one collective body of writ- 
ings at a still earlier period, appears from the reference made by the proto- 
martyr Stephen to the Book of the Prophets,’ when quoting Amos v. 27. 
The same style is employed by the Rabbins, who call Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezek- 
iel, and the Twelve, the Four Latter Prophets. They are also spoken of as 
one book by Gregory Nazianzen, in his poem, setting forth the component 
parts of the sacred volume.’ 

At what time, and by whom they were collected, cannot be determined 
with certainty. According to Jewish tradition, the collection of the sacred 
books generally is attributed to the men of the Great Synagogue, a body of 
learned Scribes, said to have been formed by Ezra, and continuing in exist- 
ence till the time of Simon the Just, who flourished early in the third century 
before Christ. In the opinion of many, Nehemiah completed this collection, 
by adding to those books which had already obtained a place in the canon, 
such as had been written in, or near his own times.’ If this actually was the 
case, it cannot be doubted that he must have availed himself of the authority 
of Malachi in determining what books were really entitled to this distinction ; 
and this Prophet, who was the last in the series of inspired writers under the 
ancient dispensation, may thus be considered to have given to the canon the 


Kal trav dédexa mpopnrav Tu b0TG avaddAot ex TOD Témov ad’Tdy. LEcclus. xlix. 10. 
=Wwy "5. 
“Oy "=F; or, as it is generally contracted, 15°"n. 
tav déd5exa ev wovoBiBAi. 
Kadws yéyparta év BiBAw Tay mpodnray, Acts vii. 42. 
E29 B22) mya. 
7 Miay wev eiow és ypaphy of Addeka 

ont « ’Auds, kad Mixalas 6 Tpiros, 

°Erety’ “Iw, eit’ "Iwvas, "ABdias, 

Naovp Te, "ABBakovx Te kad Sogovias, 

’Ayyaios, elta Zaxapalas, Madaxias, 

Mia wev olde. . Carmen xxx. iii. 

8 Kal @s karaBadAduevos BiBAwShkny, emovuviyyaye Td wep) Tav Bacidéwy Kad 

mpopnTtay, kal Ta TOU Aavld, Kat émicToAds BaotAéwv Tep) avaSeudtwy. 2 Mace. ii. 13. 


on Fr OD oe 





XXVIII GENERAL PREFACE. 

sanction of Divine approbation. Within a century and a half afterwards, 
they were translated into Greek, along with the rest of the sacred books, and 
have ever since obtained an undisputed place among the oracles of God. 

To these twelve prophetical books the epithet “ Minor” has been applied, 
simply on the ground of their size, compared with those which precede them, 
and not with any view of detracting from their value, or of representing them 
as in any respect inferior in point of authority. 

The books are not arranged in the same order in the Hebrew and Septu- 
agint texts, and in neither is the chronology exactly observed, as may be seen 
from the following table, in which the mean time is assumed as the basis of 
the calculation : 








HEBREW. LxXxX. CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. 

1. Hosea. 1. Hosea. 1. Joel. . . about 865 B.c. 
2. Joel. 2. Amos. 2. Jonah fe ee 
3. Amos. 8. Micah. 8. Amos wee 
4. Obadiah 4. Joel. 4. Hosea te TT 
5. Jonah. 5. Obadiah. 5. Micah . +t: 80. 
6. Micah 6. Jonah. 6. Nahum . ‘eae 
7. Nahum. 7. Nahuni. 7. Zephaniah 630 
8. Habakkuk. 8. Habakkuk. 8. Habakkuk . ere 
9. Zephaniah. 9. Zephaniah. 9. Obadiah . . .. . . ™ 680 
10. Haggai. 10. Haggai. WO Marra iene igt oh 50%) ip tle | Se 
11. Zechariah. 11. Zechariah. Wi. (ZOGRSEIGM 36-5 Us wales ee eee 
12. Malachi. 12. Malachi. 12: -Malachh shite. eS 











Newcome, Boothroyd, and some other translators, have adopted the order 
which appeared to them to be chronologically correct; but in the present 
work that is retained which is found in the Hebrew Bible, and followed in the 
Vulgate, in all the authorized European versions, and in those of Michaelis, 
Dathe, De Wette, and others, simply on the ground of the facility of refer- 
ence, which the other arrangement does not afford, but which is practically 
of greater importance than any advantage derivable from the change. 

The Minor Prophets have generally been considered more obscure and 
difficult of interpretation than any of the other prophetical books of the Old 
Testament. Besides the avoidance of a minute and particular style of de- 
scription, and the exhibition of the more general aspects of events only, 
which are justly regarded as essentially characteristic of prophecy, and the 
exuberance of imagery, which was so admirably calculated to give effect to 
the oracles delivered by the inspired Seers, but which to us does not possess 
the vividness and perspicuity which it did to those to whom it was originally 
exhibited, there are peculiarities attaching more or less to each of the writers, 
arising either from his matter, or from the manner of its treatment, which 
present difficulties of no ordinary magnitude to common readers, and many 
that are calculated to exercise the ingenuity, and, in no small degree, to per- 
plex the mind of the more experienced interpreter. We are frequently left 
to guess historical circumstances from what we otherwise know of the features 
of the times, and sometimes we have no other means of ascertaining their 
character than what are furnished by the descriptive terms employed in the 
predictions themselves. ‘Though in such cases general ideas may be collected 


GENERAL PREFACE. XXIX 
respecting the persons or things which are presented to view in the text, yet 
we want the historical commentary which would elucidate and give point to 
its various particulars. The accounts contained in the books of Kings and 
Chronicles are frequently too brief to furnish us with a key to many of the 
prophecies which were fulfilled during the period which they embrace ; while 
the pages of profane history only slightly touch, if they touch at all, upon 
events which the scope and bearing of the predictions determine to periods 
within the range of subjects professedly treated of by its authors. 

Against none of these prophets has the charge of obscurity been brought 
with greater appearance of justice than against Hosea, whose prophecies are 
obviously, for the most part, mere compendia, or condensed notes of what he 
publicly delivered, though preserving, to a considerable extent, the logical 
and verbal forms which characterized his discourses. Besides a profusion of 
metaphors, many of which are derived from sources little accordant with the 
dictates of occidental taste, we find in his book a conciseness of expression, 
an abruptness of transition, a paucity of connecting particles, and changes 
in person, number, and gender, to which nothing equal occurs in any of the 
other prophets. The visions of Zechariah also are not without their difficul- 
ties; but these arise, not from the language, which is remarkably simple in its 


character, but from the symbols which represent certain historical scenes and 
events. 


The period of time within which the authors of the books flourished, in- 
cludes the entire prophetic cycle of more than four hundred years — Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, having also lived in it. It is unquestionably 
the most eventful in the history of the Hebrews. It embraces the introduc- 
tion of image-worship, and that of Pheenician idolatry, with all its attendant 
evils, among the Israelites; the regicidal murders and civil wars which shook 
their kingdom to its centre; the corruptions of the Jewish state in conse- 
quence of its adoption of the idolatrous practices of the northern tribes; the 
Assyrian and Egyptian alliances; the irruption of the Syrian, Assyrian, and 
Chaldean armies into Palestine; the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities ; 
the Persian conquests ; the release of the Jews, and their restoration to their 
own land; and the state of affairs at Jerusalem during the governorship of 
Nehemiah. Upon all these various events and circumstances, the predictions, 
warnings, threatenings, promises, and moral lessons, have, in a multiplicity of 
aspects, a more or less pointed and important bearing. Events subsequent 
to this period likewise form the subjects of prophetic announcement -—such 
as the progress of Alexander the Great; the successes of the Maccabees; the 
corruptions which prevailed in the last times of the Jewish state; the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by the Romans; the dispersion, future conversion, and 
restoration of the Jews; and the universal establishment of true religion 
throughout the world. Intermingled with these topics, and giving to each a 
significance and interest which it could not otherwise have possessed, are 
some of the clearest and most illustrious predictions respecting the Messiah, 
in his divine and human, his sacerdotal and suffering, and his regal and all- 
conquering character that are to be found in the Old Testament. 


XXX GENERAL PREFACE. 


It is impossible seriously to peruse this collection of prophetical writings 
without discovering the Omniscient Eye to which all future events, with the 
most minute of their attendant circumstances, are present; the Omnipotent 
Arm, which, in the most difficult cases, secures the accomplishment of the 
Divine purposes; the glorious attributes of Jehovah as the Moral Governor 
of the universe, and the special Friend and Protector of his people ; the deep 
depravity of the human heart; the multiform phases of moral evil ; and the 
just retributions which befall mankind in the present state of existence. 
These, and numerous subjects of a kindred nature, furnish abundance of 
matter “ profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness,” which, while it is able to make “men wise unto salvation, 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus,” is also admirably fitted to “make the 
man: of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 
ili, 15—17. 

The principles on which the Author has proceeded in preparing the pres- 
ent work are the same by which he was guided in composing his Commentary 
on the Prophet Isaiah. It has been his great aim to present to the view of 
his readers the mind of the Spirit as expressed in the written dictates of 
inspiration. With the view of determining this, he has laid under contribu- 
tion all the means within his reach, in order to ascertain the original state of 
the Hebrew text, and the true and unsophisticated meaning of that text. He 
. has constantly had recourse to the collection of various readings made by 
Kennicott and De Rossi; he has compared the renderings of the LXX., the 
Targum, the Syriac, the Arabic, the Vulgate, and other ancient versions: he 
has availed himself of the results of modern philological research; and has 
conducted the whole under the influence of a disposition to place himself in 
the times of the sacred writers—surrounded by the scenery which they 
exhibit, and impressed by the different associations, both of a political and a 
spiritual character, which they embody. In all his investigations he has en- 
deavored to cherish a deep conviction of the inspired authority of the books 
which it has been his object to illustrate, and of the heavy responsibility which 
attaches to all who undertake the interpretation of the oracles of God. 

In no instance has the theory of a double sense been. permitted to exert — 
its influence on his expositions. The Author is firmly convinced, that the 
more this theory is impartially examined, the more it will be found that it 
goes to unsettle the foundations of Divine Truth, unhinge the mind of the 
biblical student, invite the sneer and ridicule of unbelievers, and open the 
door to the extravagant vagaries of a wild and unbridled imagination. Hap- 
pily the number of those who adhere to the multiform method of interpreta- 
tion is rapidly diminishing ; and there cannot be a doubt, that, in proportion 
as the principles of sacred hermeneutics come to be more severely studied, 
and perversions of the word of God, hereditarily kept up under the spécious 
garb of spirituality and a more profound understanding of Scripture, are 
discovered and exposed, the necessity of abandoning such slippery and un- 
tenable ground will be recognized, and the plain, simple, grammatical and 
natural species of interpretation, adopted and followed. 


Vv 


HOSEA . 


JOEL 


“ AMOS 


— 


/ 
OBADIAH 


JONAH 


MICAH: . 


NAHUM . 


HABAKKUK . 


ZEPHANIAH 


»HAGGAI 


ZECHARIAH 


MALACHI 


CONTENTS. 








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PREFACE. 


Respectine the origin of this prophet nothing is known beyond what is 
stated in the title, ver. 1. If, as is now generally agreed, Jeroboam II. died 
about the year B. c. 784, and Hezekiah began to reign about B. c. 728, it would 
appear from the same verse that the period of his ministry must have em- 
braced, at the very least, fifty-six years. To some this has seemed incredible, 
chiefly on the ground that his prophecies are comprised within the compass of 
fourteen brief chapters. It must be remembered, however, that the prophets 
were not uninterruptedly occupied with the delivery of oracular matter. 
Sometimes considerable intervals elapsed between their communications, al- 
though there can be no doubt that, having once been called to the office of 
public teachers, they devoted much of their time to the instruction of the 
people among whom they lived. Besides, there is no reason for believing 
the contents of the book are all that he ever uttered. They constitute only 
such portions of his inspired communications respecting the Israelites, as the 
Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve for the benefit of the Jews, among whose sacred 
writings they were incorporated. 

Hosea was contemporary with Isaiah, Micah, and Amos, and, like the last- 
mentioned prophet, directed his prophecies chiefly against the kingdom of the 
ten tribes. 

From the general tenor of his book, and from the history of the times con- 
tained in the Books of Kings, he manifestly lived in a very corrupt age. 
Idolatry, a fondness for foreign alliances, civil distractions, and vice of every 
description abounded, the impending judgments on account of which he was 
commissioned to announce. 

Though he occasionally mentions Judah, yet the entire scene is laid in the 
land of Israel, where, there can be little doubt, he lived and taught. 

With the exception of the first and third chapters, which are in prose, the 
book is rhythmical, and abounds in highly figurative and metaphorical language. 
The diction is exceedingly concise and laconic ; so much so, that Jerome justly 
describes him as “ commaticus et quasi per sententias loquens.” The sentences 
are in general brief and unconnected; the unexpected change of person is of 
frequent occurrence ; number and gender are often neglected; and the sim- 
iles and metaphors are frequently so intermixed, that no small degree of at- 
tention is required in order to discover their exact bearing and force. He is 
more scanty in his use of the particles than the other prophets, which adds 
not a little to the difficulty of interpreting his prophecies. In many instances 
he is highly animated, energetic, and sublime. Of all the prophets he is, in 
point of language, the most obscure and hard to be understood. 


CHAPTER I. 


This chapter contains the inscription, ver. 1; a representation of the idolatrous kingdom of 
Israel under the image of a female, whom the prophet was ordered to marry, but who 
should prove false to him, 2, 3; and of the punishment with which it was to be visited, by 
the symbolical names of the prophet’s children, together with a distinct intimation that 


the kingdom of Judah should not be involved in the same destruction, 4-8. 


It concludes 


with a gracious promise of the joint restoration of all the tribes, and their flourishing con- 
dition in the land of their fathers, subsequent to the Babylonish captivity. 





1 Tue word of Jehovah which was communicated to Hosea, the son 
of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, 
kings of Judah; and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, 


king of Israel. 


2 The beginning of the word of Jehovah by Hosea. Jehovah said 


1, The kings here mentioned are those 
specified in the inscription to the prophe- 
cies of Isaiah, with the addition of Jero- 
boam, the son of Joash, commonly called 
Jeroboam the Second, to distinguish him 
from the son of Nebat. This monarch 
carried on very successful wars with his 
northern neighbors, and recovered out of 
their hands the territories of which they 
had taken possession; but though thus 
signally prospered, as an instrument in 
the hand of Jehovah, he was a wicked 
character, and greatly promoted idolatry 
in Israel. See 2 Kings xiv. 23-28. 

By 72%, word, is meant the prophetic 
matter contained in the book. Thus the 
Targ. syia3 DANE.— mm is commonly 
rendered * came” in such connection, but 
it seems preferable to retain its usual sig- 
nification, only adding another verb, as 
communicated, imparted, or such like, to 
suit the English idiom. 

2. "27 is equivalent to “27 and is ren- 
dered as anoun in the LXX., Targ., and 
Syr. It occurs in the absolute form 
21n, Jer. v. 13, with a similar reference 
to inspired matter. Some have attempted 
to show from the words mim "35 m5nn 
sina that Hosea was the first of the 
prophets employed to convey Jehovah’s 
messages to his ancient people; but con- 
trary to the import of the words, which 


merely refer to the commencement of the 
prophecies of Hosea. For the use of the 
preposition 23 in such connection, see 
Numb. xii. 2; 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. Comp. 
év mpopytas, Heb. i. 1. 

‘The transaction here described, and 
that narrated chap. iii. 1, are clogged 
with almost insuperable difficulties ; and, 
as may be expected, have given rise to 
very different modes of interpretation. 
By most commentators, the things speci- 
fied are considered to have actually taken 
place in the outward history of the 
prophet. Others, as Abarbanel, Kimchi, 
Maimonides, Ruffinus, Qcolampadius, 
Marckius, Pococke, and recently Heng- 
stenberg, regard the whole in the light 
of internal prophetic vision; while Cal- 
vin, Luther, Osiander, Rivetus, Danzeus, 
Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, and others, treat it 
as a species of parabolical representation, 
in which the prophet appropriates to him- 
self imaginary circumstances, aptly fitted 
to impress the minds of those whom he 
addressed with a sense of their wicked- 
ness, and the punishment to which it 
exposed them. 

To the last of these opinions it may 
justly be objected that the language, 
«¢ And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go,” efc. 
is identical with that used Is. vii. 3, viii, 
1, xx. 2; Jer. xiii. 1-7, xviii. 1, 2, xix.; 


Cuap. I. 


HOSEA. 3 


to Hosea: Go, take thee a lewd woman, and lewd children, for 
the land hath committed great lewdness, in a state of separation 


from Jehovah. 


Ezek. iv. v. xii. xxiv.; and in many 
other passages, which cannot without 
violence be understood parabolically. 
Not the slightest hint is given, in the 
present case, that the circumstances are 
fictitious. Besides, it has been observed, 
that there is no instance of any of the 


prophets ever making himself the subject — 


of a parable. 

The same objection lies with equal 
force against the assumption, that the 
things described were merely exhibited 
internally to the mind of the prophet. 
The Divine mandate was doubtless in- 
ternal; but there is no intimation that 
what follows was in vision, any more 
than in the instances above quoted. On 
the contrary, it is set forth as real matter 
of fact. When internal scenic represen- 
tations were granted, the verbs min or 
TN, fo see, are always employed. to de- 
scribe the experience of the person who 
viewed them, which is not the case here. 
See na vi. ; Jer, xxiv. 1; Ezek. ii. 9 — 

ii. iii Comp. also 
the hrusiaber of the Apocalypse. 

We are, therefore, shut up to the literal 
interpretation, according to which the 
transactions, though symbolical, were 
real, and outward in the history of Hosea. 
Those, however, who adopt this view, 
are not agreed on the subject of the 
females specified — some being of opinion 
that only one is intended in both passages ; 
others, two; some, that Gomer was not 
a lewd character before the prophet took 
her, but became such afterwards ; others, 
that she was originally unchaste; some, 
as Thomas Aquinas, that he did not 
marry her at all, but merely lived with 
her as aconcubine! Lyra and Newcome 
think that nothing more is meant by “a 
wife of lewdness,” than an Israelitess — 
one of those who had become guilty of 
spiritual fornication or idolatry. The 
position that Hosea was commanded to 
marry an impure female cannot be sus- 
tained, for two reasons. First, the chil- 
dren were clearly those afterwards de- 
scribed as born to the prophet, and are 


spoken of as lewd as well as their mother. 
Secondly, on the supposition that Gomer 
had been guilty of acts of impurity pre- 
vious to her connection with the prophet, 
there would be no congruity in consti- 
tuting her a type of Israel, who is repre- 
sented as lewd because she had lapsed 
into idolatry, in violation of the marriage 
contract entered into at Sinai. See 
Gesen. Lex. p. 306, 2. Consistency of 
interpretation absolutely requires the 
adoption of this view of the subject, as is 
admitted both by Hengstenberg and Hit- 
zig. The objections otherwise produced 
by the former of these authors against the 
literal character of the transactions are 
more specious than real. Besides being 
the most obvious and natural, it has 
much to recommend it on the ground of 
the public notoriety which infidelity on 
the part of the wife of a prophet must 
have created, and its aptness to typify 
the conduct of the Israelites towards Je- 
hovah. It may indeed be said, that his 
marrying a notoriously lewd character 
must have produced a much greater sen- 
sation. True, but besides the encour- 
agement which it must have been calcu- 
lated to give to the formation of un- 
hallowed and irreligious connections, it 
would not, as was just observed, have 
been in accordance with the design of the 
transaction, which was, not to represent 
the character of the Hebrews before the 
period of their national reception into 
alliance with Jehovah, but their conduct 
as exhibited in the pages of their subse- 
quent history. The phrases 72137 rex, 
mont "3559 a lewd woman and lewd chil- 
dren, have the same import, and are not 
to be interpreted as if the mother alone 
were guilty, and the children merely the 
product of her guilty conduct. Comp. 
the phrase 358 "155, children of trans- 


gression, i. e. transgressors. Thus as to 
Owe VF 


sense the Targ.; and the Syr. +#LOo 


yo 
mS. and children that commit lewd- 


ness. ‘Thus also Rosenmiiller. Both are 


4 HOSEA. 


Cuap. I. 


8 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and 


4 she conceived, and bare him a son. 


And Jehovah said unto 


him, Call his name JuzreeL; for yet a little while, and I will 
avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will 


5 cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. 


And it shall 


come to pass in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in 


the valley of Jezreel. 


anticipative as to the relation of the 
prophet, though typical of what had 
already taken place on the part of the 
ten tribes. Viewed as a kingdom they 
are represented as a mother; and as indi- 
vidual subjects of that kingdom, they are 
spoken of as her children. The plural 
t7::27 is emphatic, as pn in tw 
mvs, ete. Comp. 072327 min, chap. iv. 
12, and ii. 4. That they are otherwise 
to be identified appears from the use of 
hi» take, which properly applies only to 
the female, but here governs both nouns, 
as Jerome observes, ard kxowov. The 
reason of the symbolic action is assigned 
at the close of the verse — the atrocious 
conduct of the Israelites in renouncing 
the pure worship of Jehovah, and ad- 
dicting themselves to idolatry. Comp. 
Lev. xvii. 7; xx. 5, 6; Hos. iv. 12. 
asm, the land, is put, by metonymy, for 
its inhabitants. The preposition ya has 
here the force of a negative, which 
strongly expresses the state of separation 
which had taken place. 

8. That the names Gomer and Diblaim 
are to be taken symbolically, as Heng- 
stenberg interprets, does not appear. 
His exposition of them is fanciful, as is 
that of Jerome, who takes pretty much 
the same view. The use of 4%, to him, 
i. e. to Hosea, proves that the child was 
not of spurious origin. The word is 
wanting, indeed, in three of Kennicott’s 
MSS., and one of De Rossi’s, the Com- 
plut. edition of the LXX., the Itala, and 
the Arab.; but the omission in all prob- 
ability originated in an attempt to render 
the phraseology comformable to that of 
verses 6 and 8. 

4,5. txgat, Jezreel, i. e. God will 
scatter, from 37%, to scatter, disperse, as in 
Zech. x. 9; Targ. wanna. It was 
otherwise the proper name of a city in 


the tribe of Issachar, on the brow of the 
central valley in the great plain of the 
same name, and the royal residence of 
Ahab and his successors. It was here 
Jehu exercised acts of the greatest cruelty, 
2 Kings x. 11, 14,17. These acts were 
speedily to be avenged in the extinction 
of the royal family, and the entire ces- 
sation of the Israelitish state. It had 
been announced to Jehu that his sons 
should occupy the throne till the fourth 
generation, 2 Kings x. 30. Two of these 
generations had passed away by the time 
of the prophet— Jeroboam being the 
great grand-son. In the following gene- 
ration, the prediction received its accom- 
plishment. By the “ bow of Israel” is 
meant her military prowess, which was 
completely subdued by the Assyrian 
army. The valley here mentioned, after- 
wards called Hsdraelon, was famous for 
the battles fought there from the most 
ancient times. It consists of the broad 
elevated plain which stretches from the 
Jordan to the Mediterranean, near Mount 
Carmel, and is well adapted to military 
operations. Accordingly, Dr. E. D. 
Clarke observes, “‘ Jews, Gentiles, Sara- 
cens, Christian Crusaders, and Anti- 
Christian Frenchmen, Egyptians, Per- 
sians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors 
out of every nation which is under heaven, 
have pitched their tents upon the plains 
of Esdraelon, and have beheld the vari- 
ous banners of their nations wet with the 
dews of Tabor and Hermon.’’ It was, 
therefore, natural that the Israelites 
should endeavor to make a stand against 
the Assyrians in this valley; but being 
overpowered by numbers were obliged to 
succumb to the enemy. Of this discom- 
fiture, and the consequent dispersion of 
the ten tribes, the name of the prophet’s 
son was symbolical. 


Cuap. I. 


HOSEA. 5 


6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter; and He said 


to him, Call her name Lo-Runaman; for I will no more have 
mercy upon the house of Israel, but will utterly take them 
away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and 
will save them by Jehovah their God, and will not save them 
by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by 


And she weaned Lo-Ruuaman, and conceived, and bare a 
And He said, Call his name Lo-Ammr1; for ye are not my 
Nevertheless the number of 
the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which can 
neither be measured nor numbered; and it shall be, that in- 
stead of its having been said to them, Ye are not my people, 
it shall be said to them, Ye are the children of the living God. 
Then shall the children of Judah, and the children of Israel, be 


7 
horsemen. 
48 
9 son. 
10 people, and I will not be yours. 
11 


6, 7. mann 85, Lo-Runaman, i. e. 
unpitied. “>” sw elsewhere signifies to 
forgive ; and were the verb preceded by 
the copulative 1, it might be so rendered 
here, only supplying the negative x> 
from the preceding clause ; but as *A, but, 
excludes such repetition, the phrase must 
be rendered as in the translation. LXX. 
antag areca Rerendeyea avrois. Syr. 


ons a] Noe Qo. Vulg. 


sbiesiri obliviscor eorum — reading 8B2, 
which is found in De Rossi's MS. 596, 
at first hand, instead of Nw. The king- 
dom of Israel was never more to be re- 
stored, though, in conjunction with the 
Jews, the scattered Israelites were to 
return to Canaan after the Babylonish 
captivity, ver. 11. It was to be very 
different with the Jewish power. Though 
likewise attacked, and threatened with 
utter extinction by Sennacherib, they 
were mercifully delivered by a divine 
interposition, without all human aid. 
And though they were afterwards carried 
away to Babylon, their civil polity was 
restored, which was not the case with 
the Israelites. mand, war, stands ellip- 
tically for manda "WIN, warriors. 

8. The mention here made of the 
weaning of Lo-Ruhamah, seems designed 
rather to fill up the narrative, than to 
describe figuratively any distinct treat- 
ment of the Israelites. 


9. "ey Xd, Lo-Ammy, i. @. not my peo- 
ple, further sets forth the rejection of the 
ten tribes by Jehovah. Nothing could 
have been better calculated to make an 
impression upon the minds of his country- 
men, than for the prophet thus to give to 
one child after another a name strongly 
significant of the disastrous circumstances 
to which they should be reduced. Instead 
of p53 nins—s, J will not be yours, i. e. 
your God, ‘Houbigant and Newcome 
would read E=*mbs wd, J am not your 
God: but though the antithesis is com- 
mon, it admits of an ellipsis, just as in 
Ezek. xvi. 8, there is an ellipsis of 

mzn>. Comp. Ps. cxviil. 6, The MSS. 
and versions exhibit no variation. 

10, 11. These verses contain a gra- 
cious promise of the recovery of the 
descendants of the Israelites, along with 
those of their brethren the Jews, at the 
termination of the Babylonish captivity. 
Though entirely and for ever broken up 
as a distinct kingdom, yet, during the 
period of their residence in the regions 
of the East, whither they were to be 
transported, they should greatly multiply, 
and afterwards be reinstated in the priv- 
ileges of adoption, as members of the 
theocracy. ‘The eleventh verse teaches 
the reunion of all the tribes, and their 
return under Zerubbabel to their own 
land. ‘That this prince is meant by the 
“FIN UN, one head, must be maintained, 


6 HOSEA. 


Cuap. II. 


gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one 


12 
day of Jezreel. 
your sisters, Runaman. 


since the Messiah, who is by many sup- 
posed to be intended, is nowhere spoken 
of as appointed by men, but always as 
the choice and appointment of God, 
vs) land, signifies, in this connection 
the country of Babylon, not excluding 
those other regions of the East in which 
the descendants of the different tribes 
were found. Ssynt-, Jezreel, is obvi- 
ously used here in a different acceptation 
from that in which it is taken ver. 4. 
That of sowing is alone appropriate. Tl- 
lustrious should be the period when the 


head, and shall come up out of the land. For great shall be the 
Say ye unto your brethren, Amoi; and to 


tribes should again be sown in their own 
country. Comp. chap. ii. 22, 23; Jer. 
Xxxi. 27. 

The principle on which part of ver. 10, 


_and chap. ii, 23, are quoted, Rom. ix. 


25, 26, and 1 Pet. ii. 10, seems to be 
that of analogy. As God had taken 
pity upon the ten tribes, who had become 
heathens, as it respects idolatrous and 
other practices, so he had pitied the 
Gentiles who had been in the same cir- 
cumstances. "What was said of the one 
class was equally descriptive of the other. 





CHAPTER II. 


The prophet proceeds in this chapter to apply the symbolical relation described in the pre- 
ceding. He calls the Israelites to reform their wicked conduct, 1,2; threatens them with a 
series of calamities, the effect of which should be their repentance and return to the service 
of Jehovah, 3-15; and promises a gracious restoration to his favor, and the enjoyment of 
security and prosperity in their own land, 16-23. 


1 ConrEeND with your mother, contend ; 


2 For she is not my wife, 


Neither am I her husband: 
That she may remove her lewdness from her face, 
And her adulteries from between her breasts. 


1, 2. The individual members of the 
Israelitish state are here summoned to 
urge upon their nation the consideration 
of its wickedness in having departed 
from God. Of these the nation of the 
ten tribes was the Dx, mother. Cocceius, 
Dathe, Kuinoel, and Riickert, render *5, 
that, and interpret: Argue the point 
with your nation, and show her that in 
consequence of her wicked conduct all 
relations between us have ceased. The 
casual signification of the conjunction, 
however, seems preferable. ‘The words 


which it introduces form a parenthesis ; 
and “on1, which, though future, is to be 
rendered potentially : that she may remove 
connects with ;2%, contend ye. ‘The ‘ 
is, as frequently to be taken reAwKas- 
The repetition of 3255 is emphatic, as 
ducite in Virgil : — 
‘ Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, 
ducite Daphnin.” 


By epapx31 672527, fornications and 
adulteries, are meant the tokens or indi- 
cations of lewd character : — boldness of 


Cnap. II. 


3 Lest I strip her naked, 


HOSEA. 7 


And set her as in the day when she was born, 
And make her as the desert, 
And make her like a dry land, 
And cause her to die with thirst. 
4 Upon her children I will have no mercy, 
For they are lewd children. 
5 Because their mother hath committed lewdness, 
Their parent hath acted shamefully ; 
For she said: I will follow my lovers, 
That give me my bread and my water, 
My wool and my flax, my oil and my wine. 


countenance, and an immodest exposure 
of the breasts. Both forms are redupli- 
cate, to express the enormity of the evil. 
What the prophet has in view is the 
reckless and unblushing manner in which 
the Israelitish nation practised idolatry. 
The LXX. have read =25%, “from my 
face;”’ improperly in this connection, 
though a similar phrase occurs elsewhere. 

3. A striking accumulation of synony- 
mous denunciations for the purpose of 
describing the state of complete desti- 
tution to which the idolatrous Israelites 
would be reduced by the infliction of 
divine judgments. They should be 
placed in circumstances analogous to 
those in which they had originally been 


in Egypt. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 4; xxiii. 
25, 26, 28, 29. For "277 comp. Jer. 
ii. 6. : 


4, Individuals might expect that they 
would escape, and not be treated as the 
nation in its collective capacity; but 
Jehovah here declares, that he would 
treat them according to the demerits of 
their individual wickedness. For *32 
Er2n27 comp. 072135 “ab-, ch.i.2. ‘The 
second noun is, as’ frequently, used ad- 
jectively. 

5. 2, since or because, and 54>, there- 
fore, ver. 8, correspond to ppl other, 
the former marking the protasis, the 
latter the apodosis. The second »> in- 
troduces parenthetically an illustration 
of the statement made at the beginning 
of the verse. in is the feminine par- 
ticiple of nan to conceive, be pregnant, 
Comp. nin, , Song iii. 4, According to 


the Jewish exegesis, "4.17, Gen. xlix. 26, 
is used of male progenitors. The larg. 
and Jarchi suppose teachers to be here 
meant; but the term is merely a syno- 
nyme of Dx, mother, in the preceding 
hemistich. ‘Interpreters are not agreed 
respecting the rendering of m¥¢-21n. In 
most instances in which the word occurs 
it certainly has the transitive significa- 
tion; but here the intransitive seems 
more appropriate. Comp. Jer. vi. 15, 
where it is explained by sw mayin *D. 

Comp. also SO", IAN, asPn, as Hiph. 
intransitives. “The paragogic nm in msds, 
elongating the future, is expressive of a 
decided purpose, desire, or bent of mind ; 

it is my settled determination to follow 
those who richly supply my wants in 
return for my religious services. D°arN% 
lovers, which is here employed meta- 
phorically to denote idols, is seldom used 
except in a bad sense. This interpretation, 
which is that of Joseph Kimchi and 
Abarbanel, is more in keeping with the 
symbolical character of the prophecy, 
than that suggested by the Targ. 7723 
y728 427, which takes the word in the 
sense of ‘idolaters, or idolatrous nations, 
such as Assyria, ete. Comp. as strictly 
parallel, Jer. xliv. 17-19. The lan- 
guage indicates complete alienation of 
heart from Jehovah, the only giver of 
all good, and a blind confidence in, and 
devotion to the service of idols. The 
articles specified comprehend both the 
necessaries and the luxuries of ancient 
Hebrew life. 4:22, o’/, is much in use 
among the Orientals, both in its simple 


8 HOSEA. 


6 Therefore, behold! 


Cuap. II. 


I will hedge up thy way with thorns, 


And will raise a wall, that she may not find her paths. 
7 And she shall eagerly pursue her lovers, but she shall not over- 


take them; 


And shall seek them, but shall not find them: 
Then shall she say: I will go and return to my first husband, 
For it was better with me then than now. 

8 . Because she knew not that it was I that gave her 
The corn, and the new wine, and the oil ; 
And furnished her abundantly with silver and gold, 
Which they made into images of Baal: 

9 Therefore I will take back my corn in its time, 
And my new wine in its season ; 
And I will recover my wool and my flax, 
Designed to cover her nakedness. 


state, and as compounded with other in- 
gredients. It is specially applied as 
ointment to the body after bathing. 
Comp. Psalm xxiii. 5; Prov. xxi. 17. 
sar denotes here all kinds of artificial 
drink, being used in distinction from 
water. ‘The Aldine edition of the LXX. 
reads 6 olvds wov; but the usual reading 
is mavta boa mor Kadheet, with which 
the Targ. and Syr. agree. The word 
occurs, Ps. cii. 10; Prov. iii. 8 ; and is evi- 


dently derived from mpy. Arab Cone 


Eth. ripe: * to make to drink, to water. 


6. For 5 in 7247 the LXX. Arab. and 
Syr. read ;+, but most likely in order to 
produce uniformity in the use of the 
affix. The metaphor here employed is 
borrowed from the condition of a trav- 
eller whose progress is interrupted by a 
hedge thrown across his path, or who 
can no longer pass through the gap of 
an enclosure which used to be in his 
way; and who is consequently reduced 
to straits and difficulties. ‘Turned out 
of his accustomed course, he is bewil- 
dered, and strives in vain to extricate 
himself. Comp. Job xix. 8; Lam. iii. 
7,9. mAh, a wall, is poirited m3, in 
the editions of J. H. Michaelis, and Jahn, 
and this punctuation Hengstenberg at- 
tempts, without success, to defend. The 
wall means the external hindrances which 
the captivity interposed between the ten 


tribes and the objects of their idolatrous 
attachment. 

7. Convinced by bitter experience of 
the folly of idolatry, the Israelites would 
renounce it, and return to the service of 
Jehovah. 757" is intensive, and expresses 
the ardor of the pursuit. The Vau in 
myes1, marking the apodosis, points out 
the ‘consequence or result of the failure 
— a resolution to turn from idols to serve 
the living God. It might be rendered 
so that, but not in order that, as Manger 
Proposes. FX; then, designates the period 
previous to the apostasy ‘of the ten tribes, 
when in reward for external obedience, 
they enjoyed temporal blessings. ‘Thus 
the Targ. smb smn 72 i su "AN 
snmisud mbes wb yep mbotp . 

8, 9. 4 and 45 4 at the beginning of 
these verses stand in the same relation 
to each other as “> and "=>, verses 5th 
and 6th. Before sw» supply “EN: By 
ty2, Baal, the prophet means “ images 
of Baal,” the singular being used ool 
lectively for the plural. Comp. ch. viii. 
4, where D*2 3, idols, correspond to bya 
in the present case. Hitzig would re- 
strict “ON, understood, to 271, gold, sup- 
posing the golden calves set up at 
Bethel and Dan to be meant; but, as it 
does not appear that the name of Baal 
was ever applied to them, his interpre- 
tation is groundless. See chap. viii. 4; 
which also clearly proves that by tv» 


Cuap. II. 


HOSEA. 9 


10 And now I will expose her vileness before her lovers, 
And none shall deliver her out of my hand. 
11 And I will cause all her joy to cease; 


byn% we are not to understand the conse- 
cration of the silver and gold to the ser- 
vice of Baal, but the actual conversion of 
these precious metals into images of that 
idol, or at least into plating with which 
to cover such as were made of wood. 
2 Chron. xxiv. 7, to which Secker appeals 
in favor of the former meaning of the 
phrase, is also to be so understood. ‘The 
rendering of Gesenius, 
offered to Baal,” is equally objectionable ; 
the phrase bn ¥, when thus used, being 
referred to sacrificial victims. Targ. 
snisud atay m2. Hengstenberg at- 
tempis to support the position that conse- 
cration is meant; but his reasons are al- 
together futile. The very passage which 
he quotes as parallel (Ezek. xvi. 17, 18,) 
is directly opposed to his exegesis of the 
phrase. Baal was perhaps the most ancient 
of all the gods worshipped in the East. 
He was, according to Dr. Miinter, the re- 
presentative of the sun, the generative 
power in the eastern mythology, and 
had associated with him Astarte, the 
female power, which was viewed as rep- 
resenting the moon. Gesenius, however, 
is of opinion, that under these names the 
planets Jupiter and Venus were wor- 
shipped. See on Isaiah xvii. 8. From 
the frequency with which his name oc- 
curs in compound Pheenician names, 
as Hannibal, Hasdrubal, etc., the wor- 
ship of Baal appears to have been com- 
mon among that people; and from them, 
especially the Tyrians, it was borrowed 
by the Israelites. Mention is made of 
this idolatry in the time of the Judges, 
see chap. ii. 11, 13; iii. 7; vi. 25; it 
became prevalent even in Judah in the 
days of Ahaz; and, though abolished by 
the pious king Josiah, was revived by 


Manasseh.’ In Israel it rapidly gained * 


ground after the introduction of the wor- 
ship of the golden calves by Jeroboam, 
and reached its height in the reigns. of 
Ahab and Hosea. The verb an, to return, 
turn back, is frequently used adverbially. 
So here "np ards, J will again take 
away, or take lash i. e. deprive of. The 


2 


“which they 


meaning is, that instead of reaping the 
fruits of the earth, etc. as they expected 
at the usual season, they should be trod- 
den down, consumed, or taken away by 
the Assyrian army under Shalmaneser, 
Jehovah vindicates his right to the vari- 
ous articles specified, because they had 
been bestowed by his providence; calling 
them fis, with obvious reference to ver. 5, 
in which Israel had called them hers. 
The land and all it contained were spe- 


cially his. $2; Arab. (hues, liberatus 
Suit, expresses the idea of rescuing or re- 
covering what was unjustly held. The > 
in mio5% denotes end or purpose, and is 
quite in its place; so that there is no ne- 
cessity, with Houbigant, Dathe, Horsley, 
Newcome, Boothroyd, and others, to 
change it into %, out of deference to the 
LXX. who render rod uh Kadvrrew. 

10. mada2 occurs only in this place, 
but is obviously equivalent to 7423, atro- 
cious, shameful, detestable wickedness. - Targ. 
math, her shame, LXX. thy axaSapotay 

oe 


adtis; Syr. The&05Q2, nudatio in ma- 
Jum, pudenda. Castel.; Arab. Ls) pad 


her nakedness. Occuring in immediate 
connection with the preceding 7179, 
nudity, it conveys the superadded idea 
of obscenity, 7. e. by metonomy, the re- 
sults or consequences of idolatrous con- 
duct, a complete destitution of all the 
necessaries of life. Comp. Jer. xiii. 26; 
Nah. iii. 5. This exposure was to be 
made in the very presence of the idols 
which Israel had served, none of which 
should be able to afford deliverance. By 
a prosopopeeia, the idols are first endowed 
with the faculty of vision, and then their 
utter imbecility is strikingly set forth. 
wx, not only signifies man, but any one, 
and is frequently used of inanimate ob- 
jects. In connection with x3, it signifies 
none, 

11, 12, explain the denouncement 
made ver. 10. The country was to be 
desolated by the invading armies, and all 


10 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. 


Her festivals, her new moons,.and her sabbaths, 
And all her appointed assemblies. 

12 I will also lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, 
Of which she said: They are my hire 
Which my lovers have given me: 


I will turn them into a forest, 


And the beasts of the field shall devour them, 
13 I will avenge upon her the days of the Baals, 

On which she burned incense to them ; 

And decked herself with nose-rings and trinkets, 


And followed her lovers, 


And forgat me, saith Jehovah. 


the festivities and seasons of religious 
observance were to cease. The different 
terms here employed are those by which 
the seasons of worship, etc. appointed 
by Jehovah in the Mosaic law, are des- 
ignated; but it is not hence to be inferred 
that such were observed according to his 
appointment. The Israelites professed 
to worship him, but, at the same time, 
served other gods. While from habit 
they continued to keep them as portions 
of time unappropriated to the ordinary 
occupations of life, they were doubtless 
converted into seasons of carnal indul- 
gence. ‘The nouns are those of mul- 
ee and must be rendered in the plu- 
ral. 43, and m3sn, are likewise to be 
taken a “collectives, ¢ or rather, as Horsley 
suggests, plantations of vines and fig- 
trees. ‘These should be left uncultivated 
on the removal of the inhabitants into 
foreign regions. Comp. Is. v. 6; vil. 23, 
24. mons, like 2nx, is used only of the 
hire of a harlot, and is peculiarly appro- 
priate in this connection. Thus ‘Tan- 


chum on bs Vili. 9 ; s—Jdus lo os 
17, 18. The wild beast is here to be 
taken literally, and not figuratively, as 
Abarbanel does,— supposing the heathen 
invaders to be meant. 

13. pxbyan, the Baals, i. e. the idols 
which they had set up to Baal in the 
cities and different parts of the country, 
as well as in their private houses. Hence 
the names Baal-Gad, Baal-Hermon, Baal- 
meon, ete, By mrbyan ‘aI~ny, are 


. Comp. Is. xxiii. 


meant the days specially devoted to the 
celebration of idolatrous rites. ‘To cause 
grateful odors to ascend from the altars, 
was considered peculiarly acceptable to 
the objects of worship. It appears to 
have originated partly in the gratification 
afforded by agreeable smells, and partly 
in the custom of burning perfumes in 
rooms, etc. with a view to purify them 
from noxious vapors. py2 and 75h 
appear to be employed here to denke 
female ornaments generally; though 
strictly taken, the former commonly sig- 
nifies such rings as the oriental females 
wear in the nostril. See on Is. iii, 21. 
nzbn, from nbn, to be smooth, polished ; 
Arab. , ornavit monilibus mundove 


suo (mulierem,) m., mundo ornata, 
denotes a trinket, necklace, or the like. 


According to Firuzabad: x3 oe e lo 


s taal y doen ornamentum 


vel e metallis conflatum, vel e lapidibus pre- 
tiosis confectum. Rosenm.; the Syr. and 
Targ. have pearls. ‘That courtesans 
decked themselves with the most costly 
ornaments they could command is men- 
tioned by Juvenal, Sat. vi. : — 


“ Mcechis foliata parantur ; 
Emitur his quicquid gracilis huc mit- 
titis Indi.” 
The prophet has in view the gay orna- 
ments in which the Israelites decked 


Cuap. II. 


14 Nevertheless, behold! 


HOSEA. 


11 


I will allure her, 


And, though I lead her into the desert, 
Yet I will speak soothingly to her. 

15 And I will grant her her vineyards from thence, 
And the valley of Achor for a door of hope: 


themselves on idolatrous holidays. Their 
entirely abandoning themselves to the 
service of idols, and their dereliction of 
the God of their fathers, are brought 
forward at the conclusion of this de- 
scription of their conduct, in order to 
heighten the aggravation of their guilt, 
and render the announcement of the 
kindly disposition of Jehovah towards 
them, at the beginning of the following 
verse, the more surprising. 

14, 455 cannot with any propriety be 
rendered ‘‘ therefore” in this connection, 
if the followiug words are to be regarded 
as promissory of good, and not as con- 
taining a further threatening of punish- 
ment. And that they are to be so 
regarded, the subsequent context suffi- 
ciently shows. ‘This particle must there- 


fore possess the force of the Arab. 


verumtamen, but yet, notwithstanding, never- 
theless. It thus marks the unexpected 
transition from threats to promises, as 
Is. vil. 14; x. 24; xxvii. 9; xxx. 18, 

et freq.—nns, of which mms is the 
Piel participle, signifies to open, be open, 

easily persuasible; hence in Piel, both in 
a good and a bad sense, to persuade, al- 
lure, prevail upon by suitable induce- 
ments. It is here necessarily to be taken 
in the sense of inducing or gaining over 
to that which is good, by the use of 
soothing and persuasive means, as the 
concluding words of the verse "772374 
m2>—-by abundantly prove. As the Is: 
raclites were to be forcibly removed from 
their land by the king of Assyria, there 
is a singular want of propriety in assign- 
ing to 4, in m°n=bh3, its usual copulative 
power. It is obviously to be understood 
exceptively, or as introducing a kind of 
parenthetical sentence, expressive of what 
was to take place in the history of the 
ten tribes previously to their conversion 
from idolatry; and which, though it 
might seem severe, was indispensable for 
the attainment of that object. For this 


signification of 1, See Ruth ii. 13; 1 Sam. 
i. 5; Eccles. ix. 16; Mal. ii. 14; and 
other instances in Noldius, No. 46. 
Bauer thinks the desert between Assyria 
and Judea is meant, through which the 
Israelites were to be conducted on their 


release; Déderlein, Theol. Biblioth. ex- - 


plains it of Judea itself, at that time 
desolate and waste. I imagine the 
country of Babylon is intended. Jehovah 
is here said to do what he would employ 
the Assyrians in doing. For the phrase 
nd dy 27, see Is. xl. 2. _ When re- 
duced to circumstances of affliction in the 
countries of the East, whither they were 
to be carried, Jehovah declares that he 
would administer consolation to them; 
holding out to them the cheering pros- 
pect of restoration, on their repentance 
to their native land. 

15. The Israelites had altogether for- 
feited their possessions ; nor could they 
acquire a new right to them except in 
the way of a fresh grant from the Lord. 
This grant he here promises them, as he 
had of old promised Canaan to their 
fathers when in the wilderness. nv, 
thence, means, returning from the wilder- 
ness; just as m2 indicates the home- 
ward direction of the exiles. To take 
msn as a particle of time, which Gese- 
nius proposes, is less suitable. «The val- 
ley of Achor” lay in the vicinity of 
Jericho, and was noted in the sacred 
history for the judgment inflicted upon 
Achan. From Is. Ixy. 10, it appears to 
have been a fertile and pleasant region ; 
and on this account alone it is thought 


by Calvin, Zanchius, Rivetus, and others, » 


to be referred to by our prophet. Most 
of the Rabbins, however, and after them, 
many Christian interpreters, consider al- 


Jusion to be made to the name, which 


signifies trouble or molestation, and to this 
T incline. This valley had proved very 
inauspicious to the Hebrews on their 
former entrance into Canaan. They had 
been forced to turn their backs before 


12 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. IIL 


And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, 
Even as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. 
16 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, 


That thou shalt call me, Isat; 


And shalt no more call me, BAati. 

17 For I will take away the names of the Baals from her mouth, 
And they shall no more be remembered by their name. 

18 And I will make a covenant for them in that day 
With the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, 
And with the reptiles of the ground ; 


the native inhabitants, and their hearts 
melted, and became as water, Josh. vii. 
5, 8, 12, 24, 26. But on their return 
from the captivity, the exiles would pass 
through it with the undisturbed expec- 
tation of a peaceable and joyful occu- 
pation of the country. By soph ne, 
a door of hope, is meant a hopeful entrance 
into the holy land.—pn2», the LXX. 
Syr. Arab. and Symm. take in the sig- 
nification to be humbled or afflicted; and 
this idea is adhered to by Grotius, who 
combines it with that of singing: * In- 
tellige autem carmen fletfis et precum ;”’ 
but that of celebrating the Divine good- 
ness in songs of gratitude and joy, better 
suits the connection. The 5 in nav, as 

before observed, indicates the homeward 
direction of the exiles — yet not without 
special reference to their approach to 
the valley of Achor. The point of 


comparison, as it respects the singing, 


seems to be the Song of Moses at the 
Red Sea. As the people then united 
in celebrating the goodness of Jehovah 
displayed in their deliverance, so should 
the returning Israelites do, on again 
taking possession of their native land. 

16, 17. The word ty, Baal, had orig- 
inally been used in its unexceptionable 
acceptation of husband, and is thus ap- 
plied to Jehovah, Is. liv. 5; but as it 
had become common in its application 
by the Israelites to the heathen deities 
which they had worshipped, and besides, 
conveyed the idea of possession and rule, 
rather than that of affection, God here 
declares that in future he would be 
called w-s, Ish, the name more usually 
employed to express the relation of hus- 


band, and which was not liable to the 
same objections : — 


‘Sic mihi servitium video, dominamque 
paratam, 
Jam mihi libertas illa paterna vale.” 
Tibullus, lib. ii. Eleg. 4. 


Before »g>x, two MSS. the LXX. Aq. 
Syr. insert *$; while two MSS., and 
originally seven more, and four printed 
editions, omit it after "x>pM. -—pb93, 
is not here to be taken as a plural of ex- 
cellency, but is used, according to its 
strict import, to denote the different im- 
ages of Baal worshipped by the Israelites, 
such as Baal-Gad, Baal-Ammon, ete. 
Comp. Exod. xxiii. 13; Zech. xiii. 2. 
The prophecy was fully accomplished at 
the return from the Babylonish captivity. 
18. Such should be the security of the 
returned exiles under the immediate 
care and protection of Jehovah, that 
every thing capable of injuring them 
should be rendered perfectly harmless. 
The irrational animals should be re- 
strained, as if under the bond of an 
inviolable compact; and the Assyrian 
armies should no more attack them. 
Some understand the former part of the 
verse figuratively — the different creatures 
there specified denoting men correspond- 
ing to them in disposition; but the 
language is rather to be regarded as 
hyperbolical, being merely intended to 
heighten the effect. Comp. Job vy. 23; 
Ezek. xxxiv. 25. Before mand, supply 
"b>, or "Bx, as in chap. i. 7. “Targ. "7139 
S247: .— 9 Siads is a pregnant phrase, 
meaning, I will ‘break and remove away 
Jrom. 33¥ is here expressive of the 


Cuap. II. 


HOSEA. 


13 


The bow, and the sword, and the battle, I will break and remove 


from the land, 


And will cause them to recline securely. 
19 I will also betroth thee to myself forever ; 
I will even betroth thee to myself with righteousness and with 


justice, 


And with kindness, and with tender compassion, 
20 Yea, I will betroth thee to myself with faithfulness ; 


And thou shalt know Jehovah. 
And it shall be in that day, 
I will respond, saith Jehovah, 


21 


reclining posture in which the orientals 
indulge whenever they are released from 
active exertion. At the time predicted 
there would be no enemy or danger to 
break in upon their repose. 


“Ipse lacte domum referent distenta 


capellee 

Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta 

_ leones. 

Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula 
flores. 

Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba 
veneni 

Occidet, Assyrium vulgo nascetur 


amomum.” Virgil, Eclog. iv. 


19, 20. was signifies to contract a 
matrimonial alliance, and is here spe- 
cially selected in order to impress the 
minds of the Israelites with a sense of 
the distinguished character of the Divine 
benignity. Though they had rendered 
themselves totally unworthy of his re- 
gard, he declares that he would treat 
them as if they had never apostatized to 
idolatry. He would form a new con- 
jugal relation, as with a female in her 
virgin state. The triple repetition of 
the verb expresses intensity of desire, 
and gives the strongest assurance to the 
party to which the promise is made, 
pbivd, for ever, is to be taken as Gen. 
xiii, 15; Exod. xxxii. 13; Is. xxxv. 10. 
The several particulars here enumerated 
further discover, by the amplification 
which they form, the great kindness of 
Jehovah to his people. By “ righteous- 
ness"’ and ‘justice,’ is meant every 
equitable obligation which God could 
be expected to place himself under in 


the new conjugal relation — all that the 
Israelites could possibly expect in the 
way of supply from their Divine pro- 
tector. To these, however, are added 
“kindness,” and tender compassion,” 
which express the strong internal affec- 
tion from which the former should pro- 
ceed, and the high degree of interest 
which God would take in his recovered 
people. To remove every doubt from 
their minds, he crowns the whole by a 
gracious assurance that his engagements 
should be ‘faithfully’ performed. p~ann, 
Ta omaAdyxva, lit. the bowels, but com- 
monly employed figuratively to denote 
tender affection or love. Horsley’ s in- 
terpretation of the terms in application. 
to our Saviour, is, like most of his 
exegesis, in the highest degree fanciful, 
being totally unsupported by the scope 
and connection of the passage. The 
knowledge of Jehovah here predicated 
is not speculative, or a bare intellectual 
acquaintance with his character, but ex- 
perimental, or that which results from 
the actual enjoyment of his love. Instead 
of min ny, twenty-six MSS., originally 
thirteen more, now two, ahd perhaps 
other two, two editions, supported by the 
Vulg., read pir 728 72, 7. e. they shall 
know that I am Jehovah. 

21, 22. One of the most beautiful 
itiétarices of prosopopeeia to be found in 
Scripture. Comp. the address to the Nile 
in Tibullus, lib. i. Eleg. vii. ver. 25: — 


“Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat 
imbres, 
Arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Jovi.” 


While second causes have here their 


14 


I will respond to the heavens, 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. III, 


And they shall respond to the earth, 
22 And the earth shall respond to the corn, and the new wine, and 


the oil, 


And they shall respond to Jezreel. 
23 For I will sow her for myself in the land, 
And will have mercy upon Lo-Runaman, 
And will say to Lo-A»at1, Thou art my people; 


And they shall say, My God! 


appropriate place allotted to them,.as so 
many connected links in the chain of 
Divine Providence, the sovereign in- 
fluence of the Great First Cause is 
steppe ly.2 apertee by the ie repe- 


verb does not occur the first time in one 
of Kennicott’s MSS.; it has originally 
been wanting in another of De Rossi’s; 
and is omitted in the LXX. Syr. and 
Arab, One of De Rossi’s MSS, omits 
nim DS? TAZ entirely; and another, 


Jezreel, here ane that skies God ‘hath 
sown, i. e. his people whom he had _scat- 
tered, but whom he would again restore 
to their native soil. Comp. chap. i. ver. 
4, and 11. 

23. 5 is causal, introducing a decla- 
ration which is designed to account for 
the appropriation of the name Jezreel at 
the end of the preceding verse. The 
metaphor is agricultural. ‘Ihe rest of 
the verse contains a repetition of what 
is promised, chap. i. 10. 


CHAPTER III. 


This chapter contains a new symbolical representation of the regard of Jehovah for his peo- 
ple, and of their condition at a period subsequent to their re-establishment in Canaan at 
the return from Babylon. The prophet is commanded to become reconciled to Gomer, 
though she had proved unfaithful to him, as predicted chap. i. 2, ver. 1. He obeys the 
command, and purchases her from the individual with whom she was living in adultery, 
but stipulates that she was to wait for a lengthened period before she could be restored to 
the enjoyment of her conjugal rights, 2,3. In the two last verses, the symbolical pro- 
ceeding is explained ofa long period during which the Hebrews were to live without the 
celebration of their ancient rites, and at the same time be free from all idolatrous practices. 
The direct prediction respecting their conversion to the Messiah, ver. 5, clearly proves, that 
their condition during the present dispersion is intended. 


1  Awnv Jehovah said unto me: Go again, love a woman beloved 


1. 34y, again, obviously refers back to 
chap. i. 2. The transaction here com- 
manded, bearing so near a resemblance 
to what is enjoined in that chapter, has 


occasioned nearly the same diversity of 
interpretation. To me there appears no 
consistent method of explaining it but 
that which assumes an identity of the 


Cuap. III. 


HOSEA. 


15 


by a friend, yet an adulteress, according as Jehovah loveth the 
children of Israel, though they have turned to other gods, and 


2 love grape cakes. 


female here specified with Gomer, whom 
the prophet had previously married. 
For, first, such construction is absolutely 
required by the analogy. It was Israel 
that stood in the relation of wife to 
Jehovah from first to last. No other 
nation was admitted to the same relation. 
Secondly, the female is one already 
married, but who had proved unfaithful ; 
which was precisely the case with Israel. 
Thirdly, except she had been the proph- 
et’s own wife, who had become un- 
faithful to him, there would be no point 
in comparing his love to her with that 
borne by Jehovah to idolatrous Isracl. 
Fourthly, a command to love the wife of 
another man, who, notwithstanding her 
infidelity was still attached to her, would 
be totally repugnant to every idea of 
moral justice and propriety. Lastly, the 
command is not mfp, take, as in the for- 
mer instance, chap. i. 2, the usual formu- 
la by which marriage is expressed; but 
ans, love, i. e. renew thy kindness to 
her; receive her back into thy house 
and make kind provision for her. This 
view of the passage is decidedly adopted 
by Ewald in his Propheten des Alten 
Bundes, recently published. 

The words 34 Mans HES sans Fb 
NENI753, are equivalent to, « ‘Go, love thy 
wife, to whom, though an adulteress, thou 
art attached;” but the indefinite form 

mY, a wife, is purposely selected, instead 
of JHwss, thy wife, in order to intimate 
the state of separation in which they 
lived. For the same purpose 9, a friend 
or companion, is used, and not my"s, her 
husband ; it being here employed not so 
much as aterm of endearment, as indi- 
cating that, whatever might be his dispo- 
sition towards her, they were not living on 
the same terms as formerly. Comp. for 
this acceptation of 34, Jer. iii. 26. The 
LXX. mistaking the word for »¥%, evil, 
and taking mams for the Benon. rank, 
render dyarGcav movnpa; for which the 


Syr. has Loins Lojane j2aay 


So I bought her to myself for fifteen pieces 


oo 
(Amis, an adulterous woman who lov- 


eth evil ree: The words nanms> 
“ina min, are to be connected with 
al nan Ss and not with ans. The kind 
feeling of the prophet towards his faithless 
wife corresponded, as a type, to the love 
of God towards the idolatrous Israelites. 
The sentence just quoted in part, as 
well as the words prntsby D5 
canes in which Hosea uses the lan- 
guage of the Pentateuch, as Hiivernick 
has shown in his Handbuch der histor- 
crit. Einleit. in das A. T.1 Theil. 2 Ab- 
theil. p. 608. 0°323 "wwN, have been 
variously interpreted. LXX. méupara 
peta otapldos or orapldwy, baked meats 
with raisins. Aq. renders the former 
word by raAma, evidently reading "$-u>. 
According to the Hexap. Syr. Theod. 


f adopts the same rendering: AAS Sa 


Lois \s, 


vinacia uvarum ; Syr. jAws9 lias) 


placenta uvis passis. condita. Junius, 
Tremellius, and others, have Jlagons of 
wine, a8 in our common version. The 
word 4-u>wsis employed by Jonathan in 
his Targ. on Exod.-xyi. 31, to express 
the meaning of n°M7B, a Slat cake. The 
most probable derivation is from wwr, to 
press, compress; and the meaning will 
be, pressed cakes of dried grapes. Such 
cakes are highly esteerfied in the East, 
on account of their sweet taste, and 
doubtless formed part of the offerings 
presented to idols, and afterwards eaten 
,at idolatrous feasts. 

2. Because the purchase of wives was 
not uncommon, as it still is, in eastern 
countries, (See Michaelis on the Laws of 
Moses, Art. LXXXV. Grant’s Nesto- 
rians, p. 214; Perkins’s Eight Years in 
Persia, p. 236,) most expositors have 
supposed that such a transaction is in- 
tended in this place. The fact, however, 
that the price here specified, one half in 


Symm. dxdprovs; Vulg. 


16 


3 of silver, and for an homer and an half of barley. 


unto her: 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. III.’ 


And I said 


Thou shalt remain for me many days; thou shalt not 


commit lewdness, nor become any man’s; and I also will remain: 


4 for thee. 


money, and the other half in grain, was 
the exact amount of what was allowed 
for a female slave, Exod. xxi. 32, induces 
the belief that the payment was made 
by the prophet for the liberation of his 
own wife, who had become the property 
of the person with whom she had been 
living in adultery. The sum was too 
parsimonious to have been given as a 
dowery. The signification of buying as 
attaching to 72, is sufficiently estab- 
lished by Deut. ii. 6, and Job xl. 30, 


and the use of the Arab. |S, Conj. vi. 


and viii., conduxit rem, LXX. éuo- 
Swodunv. Hengstenberg’s attempt to 
explain it here of digging, in the sense 
of boring the ear in token of a state of 
slavery, is unsuccessful. A 51, dethek, 
according to the Rabbins, contained 
fifteen a or half an homer. Theod. 
youdp adgirav; Symm. diarakos xpidav ; 
but the other Greek versions, jufkopoy, 
half a cor, which was equal to an 
homer. The LXX. unaccountably have 
yéBed otvov. The repetition of f° >, is 
not unusual in Hebrew, but the abbrevi- 
ated form of expression is better English. 

3. 29> properly signifies to sit, but 
likewise to dwell, remain, ete. 37m Sd 
explains its meaning here to be a re- 
fraining from all cohabitation with others. 
sb, and y7}x, are correlates; and 2s £34 
forms an antithesis; “ while I, on the 
other hand,” etc. As the wife of the 
prophet was to continue for a long time 
in a state of separation equally from 
paramours and from her husband, and 
he was likewise to form no connection 
with any other woman, so the Israelites 
should long live without serving either 
false gods or Jehovah; while, on his 
part, he would enter into no national 
relationship to any other people. This 
application of the symbol is distinctly 
marked by "5, and by the resumption of 
on, ver. 4. The choice of the fuller 
preposition Sy, in 475s, in preference to 
> seems designed to express the strength 


For the children of Israel shall remain many days 


of affection with which the symbolical 
female was still to be regarded ; conse-. 
quently the powerful inclination of the 
Lord towards his unfaithful people. 

4, This verse describes a period of 
great length, during which the Israelites 
were to have no civil polity, either under 
regal or princely rule; no sacred sacri- 
fice; no idolatrous statue; no mediating 
priest ; and no images or tutelary deities. 
This period cannot be that of their dis- 
persion previous to the return from 
Babylon; for the restoration of the wife 
of the prophet prefigured the restoration 
which took place on that return, agree- 
ably to chap. ii. 19, 20, 23. It is true 
that when they were brought back along 
with the Jewish exiles, the Israelites had 
no more any civil or ecclesiastical polity 
of their own; neither did they relapse 
into idolatry: but still, as in common’ 
with their brethren, they were subject to 
the same political rule, and offered their 
sacrifices to Jehovah at Jerusalem, it 
follows that the days here predicted 
must be those which have succeeded to 
the times of the Asmonean dynasty, or 
the dispersion consequent upon the final 
destruction of Jerusalem. During the 
protracted period of more than eighteen 
centuries, ("2 2*%") they have been 
precisely in the circumstances here pre- 
dicted —separated from idolaters, and 
professedly belonging to Jehovah, yet 
never acknowledged by him in a church 
relationship. They have neither had 
2 civil ruler, nor any of the consecrated 
offices and rites of their ancient econ- 
omy. Thus Kimchi on the passage, 
ye) Ben ree midan se. br nba 
mgs s> bese sw adi Gb 8b os 
pase prest mvs mes pan 
— “And these are the days of our pres-— 
ent captivity, for we have neither king 
no prince of Israel, but are under the 
rule of the nations, even under the rule. 
of their kings and their princes.” This 
interpretation, which alone suits the 
views furnished of the subject by the 


Cuap. III. 


HOSEA. 


17 


without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, 
and without a statue, and without an ephod, and without images. 
5 Afterwards the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek Je- 


prophet, overturns the hypothesis of Dr. 
Grant, that the Nestorian Christians are 
the remains of the ten tribes. It cannot 
properly be said of them that they have 
continued 5-2 D729, in a state of sepa- 
ration from God, for they received the 
gospel in the earliest ages of Christianity. 
Some explain p23, both of legitimate 
sacrifices and of such as were offered to 
false gods; but the grouping of this term 
with m3 1392, @ statue, as 1iDx, ephod, fol- 
lowing, i is with boS4n, teraphim, clearly 
shows that the prophet meant the former 
restrictively. Kimchi briefly explains : 

79> masa pn bab May 47s, “ without 
sacrifice to God, and without an image 
for idolatrous worship.” From the pro- 
hibition Lev. xxvi. 1; Deut. xvi. 22, and 
the history, 2 Kings iii. 2; xvii. 10; x. 
26, 27, it is manifest that m22%3 does not 
stand for altar, as the ancient versions 
render it, but denotes a statue or image 
of some false deity. Comp. Micah v. 13. 
sips, the ephod, was that part of the 
high priest’s dress which was worn above 
the tunic and robe. It consisted of two 
pieces which hung down, the one in front 
over the breast, and the other covering 
the back, and both reaching to the mid- 
dle of the thigh. They were joined to- 
gether on the shoulders by golden clasps, 
set in precious stones, and fastened round 
the waist by a girdle. In the breast part 
was the jn, or pectoral, containing the 
Urim and Thummim, by which divine 
responses were vouchsafed to the Hebrews. 
According to the Jews, the ephod in its 
complete state ceased with the captivity : 
for they specify the Urim and Thummim 
among the five things with respect to 
which the first temple differed from the 
second. LXX. feparefa, priesthood, 
which I doubt not the Hebrew term was 
intended metonymically to denote in this 
place. p°54n, the teraphim, were penates, 
or household gods. They were used at 
a very early period, as appears from the 
history of Rachel, Gen. xxxi. 19, 30, 32, 
34, 35. Comp. 1 Sam. xix. 13; 2 
Kings xxiii, 24; Ezek. xxi. 21; Zech. 

3 


x. 2. That they were not only kept as 
tutelary deities, but also consulted for 
the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of 
future events, appears from several of the 
passages just quoted. Hence the render- 
ing of the LXX. d4Awv. The etymology 
of the word is altogether uncertain. 

5. Ata period still subsequent to that 
of their existence in the state just de- 
scribed, the Israelites (now amalgamated 
with the Jews,) are to be converted to 
the true worship and service of Jehovah, 
under the spiritual reign of our Saviour, 
the, promised Messiah. To him they 
will then submit themselves, and richly 
enjoy the blessings of divine grace, 
communicated through his mediation. 
That “715, David, here means neither 
the royal house of David, nor any human 
monarch of that name who is yet to 
reign over the Jews, as some have im- 
agined, but the great Messiah himself, 
appears evident from Scripture usage. 
See Is. lv. 3, 4; Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. 
xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25. <As the 
name properly signifies The Beloved, it 
quite accords with 6 ayamnrds, Matt. iii. 
17, and 6 #ryawnuévos, Eph. i..6. Thus 
the Targ. 737 92 Nmwd javeAsty 
«And they shall obey Messiah the Son 
of David.” The following is the Rabbin- 
ical interpretation: obo yx WN 
yo OS) WAY TT No yo OS Amon 
mony 17 Nin [MSc]. “The Rabbins 
say, that Heis the king Messiah ; whether 
he be of the living, his name is David, 
and whether he be of the slain, his name 
is David.” Berachoth Jerus. in Raym. 
Martini Pugio Fidei, Fol. 277. See also 
the Rabbinical Commentaries on the 
above passages in Ezekiel. The use of 
bx,.in the phrase min ety stnbs, and 
not 472, Or "35%, the usual form, is in- 
tended to show that the fear here speci- 
fied is not of the kind which “hath tor-. 
ment,” and which causes those who are 
under its influence Zo recede from its 
object, but such fear as attracts or in- 
duces them ¢o approach to it. This the 
addition int by; “and ¢o his good- 


18 HOSEA. 


Cuap. IIL. 


hovah their God, and David their king; and they shall trem- 
blingly hasten to Jehovah and to his goodness in the latter day. 


ness,” clearly shows. Comp. Micah 
vii. 17. As, however, the idea of fleeing 
or hastening from danger is also im- 
plied in verbs signifying to fear, I have 
rendered the words so as to include 
both. In this way Rabbi Tanchum: 


sla le IS po xf rt yay 
‘«‘ They shall flee to him for help from all 
that may be feared.” Comp. Jer. xxxi. 
12. LXX. éexorhoovra ém) rg Kuplo 
kal émt trois &yaSois abrod. Ewald 
renders, und werden beben zu Jahve und 
zu seinem Gute, u. Ss w.3 and Hitzig 
explains, bebend in freudiger Erwartung 


werden sie herbeieilen. While on the 
one hand the Jews, under the infiuence 
of alarm, shall be excited to flee from 
the wrath to come, they shall be attracted 
by the display of the divine goodness in 
the mediation of Christ, to confide in 
Him for all the blessings of salvation. 
bye mins, the last of the days, i. e, 
the days of the Messiah, as the ae 
interpret the phrase. See on Is. ii. 2, 
where Kimchi says expressly, pp >> 
MDs M418" SoA HST OM AAN2 Saito 
‘¢ wherever it is said, ‘In the last of the 
days,’ it means the days of the Mes- 
siah,’”’ 





CHAPTER IV. 


The prophet now addresses himself more directly to the castigation of the flagrant evils 
which abounded in the kingdom of Israel during the interregnum which followed upon 
the death of Jeroboam, and the reigns of Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, and Pekahiah. 
He calls the attention of his countrymen to the divine indignation, and the causes of it, 1, 
2; denounces the judgments which were about to be executed upon them, 3; describes 
their incorrigible character, especially that of the priests, 4-11; and expatiates on the 
grossness of their idolatrous practices, 12-14. A solemn warning is then given to the 
members of the Jewish kingdom not to allow themselves to be influenced by their wicked 


example, 15-19. 





1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel! 
For Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; 
Because there is no truth, nor kindness, nor knowledge of God 


in the land. 


1, 2. The initiatory wotds are those 
of Hosea, summoning attention to the 
divine message which he was commis- 
sioned to deliver. $xyv> >23 is equivalent 
to bxqiv7 moa, ch. v. 1; ‘tev "1030, 
ch. v. 9; and frequently to tye and 
mops; and all these different ‘epithets 
are ‘deed of the kingdom of the ten tribes 
in contradistinction to mtam? and m3 


mim, which designate the tribes of 
Judali and Benjamin. 2" signifies here 
ground of complaint, or judicial pro- 
ceeding. ULXX. xptois. The wickedness 
which abounded is first set forth nega- 
tively, and then positively, under certain 
items; and the infinitive absolute is em- 
ployed with great effect, as expressing 
more emphatically, by its abstract form, 


a a ae 


Cuap. IV. 


2 There is nothing but swearing and lying, 


HOSEA. 


19 


And murder, and theft, and adultery ; 


They have burst forth, 
And blood reacheth to blood. 


3 Therefore shall the land mourn, 


And every one that dwelleth in it shall languish ; 

With the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven ; 

The fishes of the sea also shall be removed. 
4 Yet let no man contend with, nor reprove another ; 

For thy people are like those that contend with the priest. 
5 Therefore thou shalt fall by day, 

And the prophet also shall fall with thee by night ; 


And I will destroy thy mother. 


the heinousness of the evils described. 
The force of this I have given in a free 
translation. Ewald improperly limits 
the signification of the verb y= in this 
place to the act of breaking into houses ; 
but the metaphor seems rather to be 
taken from the bursting forth of a torrent, 
which, in its progress, spreads wider and 
wider, and sweeps all before it. The 
plural form 71%, d/ood, has also a degree 
of emphasis, signifying much bloodshed. 
What the prophet means is, that murder 
was so common, that no space was left 
as it were between its acts. LXX. 
aiuara é? afuact uloyovot. Coverdale, 
one bloudgiltynes foloweth another. And 
Ritterhusius powerfully in his poetical 
metaphrase : — 


‘sic sanguine sanguis 
Truditur, et scelerum nullus finisve 
modusve est.” 


See 2 Kings xv.; Micah vii. 2. 

8. Comp. Is. xix. 8; xxiv. 4; Joel i. 
10, 12, d x, in the Pulal. ‘Conj., is 
usually employed after 3x, in order more 
forcibly to describe the calamitous state 
of acountry. ‘3 here signifies with, ex- 
tending to, accompanied by, and includes 
what follows in the general predicate, 
Comp. Gen, vii. 21. Ox, is cognate 
with 5:5, and signifies to gather up, 
away, back, take away, as well as simply 
to collect together, Zeph. i. 2, 3. LXX. 

~> > 


exAéidovow ; Syr. gOS Attel ; Targ. 


VI7717.—bs, signifies not only what we 
call the sea, but any lesser collection of 
water, as pools, and even rivers. See Is, 
xix. 5. 

4, x is here prohibitory, and not 
simply negative, as some have rendered 
it. The introduction of the sentence by 
ss, yet, nevertheless, is designed to show 
the hopeless character of the persons 
spoken of. All reproof on the part of 
their friends or neighbors generally would 
prove fruitless, seeing they had reached 
a degree of hardihood, which was only 
equalled by the contumacy of those who 
refused to obey the priest, when he gave 
judgment in the name of the Lord, Deut. 
xvii. 12. The passage is thus quite plain, 
and requires no transposition or emen- 
dation of the words as adopted by Houbi- 
gant, Newcome, and Boothroyd. *a»'a 
qn» is the same as if it were nx pa 
yran, Comp. 5933 »3"0%0, chap. v. 10. 
All the ancient versions, except the LX X. 
and Aq. read Jy. The Hexap, Syr. has 


ye? a? Kod 


5. By a sudden transition to the sec- 
ond person, the prophet addresses himself 
directly to his guilty people, and predicts 
their utter destruction. 4>n, Kimchi, 
Drusius, colamp. Grotius, and Ewald, 
improperly render “to-day.” As con- 
trasted here with m3, night, it is equiv- 
alent to Dia, by day. Comp. Neh. iv. 
16. That the article is not repeated be- 
fore 5$-%, may be owing to the common 
adverbial use of this noun without it. 


20° 


HOSEA. 


Cuar. IV. 


6 My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge; 
Because thou hast rejected knowledge, 
I will also reject thee, so that thou shalt not be a priest to me; 
Because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, 


I also will forget thy children. 


7 According to their increase, so they sinned against me ; 
I will change their glory into shame. | 
8 They devour the sin-offering of my people, 


And long for their iniquity. 


The false prophets by whom the Israelites 
had been encouraged in wicked practices 
should render them no assistance in the 
season of calamity, but should be them- 
selves involved in the same common ruin, 
“nvvon, the LXX. renders éuotwoa; and 
several translate, “I have reduced to 
silence ;”’. but the verb is obviously used 
in the sense of destroying, as 37073 is, 
ver. 6. Comp. Zeph, i. 11. By § Fass 
thy mother, the Israelitish state is meant, 
of which the citizens were the children. 
See chap. ii. 1. Thus Kimchi, Jerome, 
Grotius, Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, and 
Maurer. Others, as Cornelius & Lapide, 
Houbigant, Capellus, Pococke, Bauer, 
and Newcome, suppose the metropolis 
to be intended. 

6. nya *>3%, having here the article 
before the noun, and occurring in con- 
nection with mya, immediately follow- 
ing, is not to be taken in the sense of wn- 
expectedly, as ny *>2% is, Is. v. 13, but 
strictly means that destitution of the 
true knowledge of God which was the 
source of the sins now about to be pun- 
ished. This ignorance is principally 
charged upon the religious teachers of 
the nation, each of whom is directly 
addressed in nOSanysh mAs. Thus 
Pagninus, O sacerdos ; which Dathe also 
inserts in his text. ‘The persons addressed 
pretended to be priests of Jehovah, though 
they taught the people to combine with 
his worship that of pagan deities, or at 
least that of the golden calves, which, no 
doubt, paved the way for the universal 
spread of idolatry in Israel. The position 
adopted by. Horsley, that the Jewish 
high-priest is intended, does not suit the 
connection. The third s in Fxoy7ox, is 
not found in a great number of Kenni- 


cott’s and De Rossi’s MSS., nor in some 
of the earlier printed editions ; in others 
it is marked as redundant, and some few 
have "=p Sox. The antitheses in this 
verse are pointed and forcible. »> is 
understood as repeated in H2vm1, and 1 
before Mavs. 

7. As the priests are obviously the 
nominative to the verbs in the three fol- 
lowing verses, and form the subject of 
discourse in that which precedes, they 
must likewise be the persons spoken of in 
this. It has been queried whether the 
increase was in number,‘or in wealth, 
power, etc. Michaelis thinks the latter 
is meant? still the former may be in- 
cluded, in harmony with the mention 
made of their children, ver. 6. In pro- 
portion as they multiplied in numbers 
and grew in influence, they promoted the 
increase of idolatry: but the wealth and 
dignity (742>) which they acquired, and 
which they thus prostituted, should be 
destroyed by foreigners, by whom they 
would be carried into captivity. tans, 
and pti33, form a slight paronomasii. 

8. muh here signifies sin-offering, as 
it frequently does in the Levitical code. 
So Kimchi; and it is thus rendered in 


Pococke’s Arab. Ms. ylba 


yrs a ae ; and eae 


culo. The priests greedily devoured what 
the people brought for the expiation of 
their sins; and instead of endeavoring to 
put a stop to abounding iniquity, only 
wished it to increase, in order that they 
might profit by the multitude of the vic- 
tims presented for sacrifice. wb? x'B3, to 

lift up the animal soul for any thing, 
means to lust after it, long, or have a 
strong desire for it, Deut. xxiv. 15; Jer 


Cuap. IV. 


HOSEA. 


21 


9 Therefore it shall be, like people, like priest ; 
I will punish them according to their ways, 
And requite them for their deeds. 
10 For they shall eat, but shall not be satisfied ; 
They shall commit lewdness, but shall not increase: 
Because they have ceased to regard Jehovah. 


11 


Lewdness and wine and new wine take away the heart. 
12 My people consult their stock ; 


Their staff announceth to them: 


xxii, 27. 4 in wpa, is used distributively 
to express the fact that such was the 
character of each of the priests. The 
reading O52, found in ten MSS., origi- 
nally in seven more, and perhaps in one, 
and supported by the LXX. Syr. Targ. 
Vulg. and Arab., most probably origi- 
nated in emendation. Not unfrequently 
a proposition commences with the plural, 
and ends with the singular, and vice 
versd. 

9. Comp. Is. xxiv. 2. The rank and 
wealth of the priests would not exempt 
them from sharing the same fate with the 
rest of the nation. 

10. 2x7 is a resumption of adSN, 
ver. 8,— main is here used intransitively 
as in ver. 18, v. 3, and is to be under- 
stood literally of the sensual indulgences 
of the Israelitish teachers, as the verb 
axe shows. For the signification ¢o 
abound in children, as attaching to this 
verb, see Gen. xxviii. 14. Saadius, 
Arnold, (Blumen althebraisch. Dichtk.) 
and Horsley, disjoin =: from the pre- 
ceding verb, and connect it with the fol- 
lowing nouns, thus : — 


«They have forsaken Jehovah, 
Giving heed to fornication,” etc. 


But, notwithstanding the apparent force 
of the bishop’s remarks, there is some- 
thing so repugnant to Hebrew usage in 
the combination w4n-h3 4721 Maat wee}, 
to observe fornication, eg wine, and new 
wine, that it is altogether inadmissible. 
Though the verb =ya% may in no other 
passage take pin for its object, yet it 
takes ND “bon, lying vanities, i. e. idols, 
Ps. xxxi. 7; Jonah ii. 9; in which latter 
passage it is connected with 239, as in 


the present case. The division of the 
words found in our common version is that 


of the Hexap. Syr. Coc. La pSo x9 


pias, and the Slavonic; and is ap- 


proved by Michaelis, Tingstadius, New- 
come, Dathe, Boothroyd, De Wette, 
Hitzig, and Ewald. 

11. This verse has the appearance of 
amoral adage. The influence of habits 
of impurity and intoxication in blunting 
the moral feelings, and weakening the 
intellectual powers, is a weli-established 
fact in the history of man. 


‘¢ Nox et amor vinumque nihil modera- 
bile suadent ; 
Illa pudore vacat, liber amorque metu.” 
Ovid. 
«Nox, vinum, mulier; nihil perniciosus 
adolescentulo,”’ Plaut. 


There can be little doubt that the prophet 
has specially in view the impure and 
bacchanalian orgies which were con- 
nected with the Syrian idolatry. For 
the prevalence of drunkenness in Ephraim 
see Is. xxviii. 1; Amos iv. 1. 

12. The LXX., and most versions 
which follow them, connect »%3 with 25, 
at the end of the preceding verse; a 
mode of construction adopted by Mi- 
chaelis and Dathe, but otherwise dis- 
approved by modern translators. ‘The 
Syr. Targ. and Vulg. divide properly. 
Hosea here adduces proofs of the mental 
hebetude to which the sinful practices of 
the Israelitish people had reduced them 
— their application to their wooden idols 
and images for oracular counsel, and their 
use of rhabdomancy or divination by 


22 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. IV. 


For a lewd spirit hath caused them to err ; 
' They have lewdly departed from under their God. 
18 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, 
And offer incense upon the hills ; 
Under the oak, and the poplar, and the terebinth, 
Because their shade is pleasant : 
Therefore your daughters commit lewdness, 
And your daughters-in-law adultery. 
14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit lewdness, 
Nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery ; 
For they themselves go aside with harlots, 


rods. Leo Juda: “ligno suo oracula 
querit.” That by 3, wood, is here 
meant an idol made of such material, 
the connection shows. Comp. Jer. ii. 
27: x. 8; Hab. ii. 19. S 1 is properly 
a shoot or twig, then a rod, walking staff, 
etc. Occurring as it does here, in refer- 
ence to an idolatrous or superstitious 
practice, it denotes such a staff employed 
for purposes of divination. Some have 
been of opinion that it is to be taken as 
strictly parallel to \y, and that a staff is 
meant which had the image of some god 
carved upon it; but the use of the phrase 
44 s"a2, announceth, pointeth out, shows 
that a divining rod is meant. Rhabdo- 
mancy (faBdouayreia) was very common 
among the ancient idolaters, as it has 
been in later times in different countries 
of the East. The ancient Arabs consulted 
their gods in this way, taking two rods, 
on one of which was inscribed God bids, 
and on the other God forbids, and drawing 
them out of the case into which they were 
put, acted agreeably to the direction 
which first came forth. See Pococke, 
Specimen. Hist. Arab. p. 327. Mai- 
monides quotes an ancient book entitled 
Siphri, in which a diviner is defined to 
be one who takes his staff, and inquires, 
Shall I go? or, Shall I not go? The 
Runic wands of the Scandinavian nations, 
on which were inscribed mysterious char- 
acters, and which were used for magical 
purposes, appear to have originated in 
the more ancient divination of Asia. 
pr2327 Man, lit. a spirit of whoredoms, 
i, e, a powerful impetus to commit acts 
of idolatry. Instead of the simple form 
mynn, some few MSS. the Babyl. Tal- 


mud, the Syr. Vulg. and Targ. read 
tenn; while the LXX, and Arab. read 
ann. For tnntx. mame, comp. 
Numb. y. 19, 20; Eztk. xxiii. 5; and 
tmavSpos, Rom. vii. 2. 

13. Mountains and hills were selected 
by idolaters on which to erect their altars, 
and offer their sacrifices, on account of 
their supposed proximity to the host of 
heaven, which they worshipped. ‘That 
this custom was very ancient, appears 
from the prohibition, Deut. xii. 2. For 
imitating it, the Hebrews are frequently 
reproved, Is. lxv. 7; Jer. iii. 6; Ezek. 
xviii. 11. sma3°, being in Piel, ex- 
presses the eagerness and frequency with 
which the Israelites offered their idola- 
trous sacrifices. They also selected groves 
of oak, terebinth, ete., for purposes of 
superstition and idolatry, under whose 
umbraceous cover they might at once be 
screened from the heat of the sun, and 
indulge in lascivious practices. The 
sacrifice of female virtue which was re- 
quired in the religious service of the 
Phoenician goddess Astarte, seems clearly 
to be referred to in this and the following 
verse. 2nd, LXX. Acven, the white 
poplar, from "ab to be white. 

14. Kuinoel, and others, taking 3, as 
standing for xb, read the first part of 
the verse interrogatively, which is not 
unsupported by examples in Hebrew 
usage. It seemsbetter, however, to under- 
stand it here as a simple negative, and 
the meaning to be that, as the parents 
and husbands indulged in the flagitious 
practices here described, Jehovah would 
not make examples of the females, or suf- 
fer them to be punished, as if they alone 


Cuap. IV. 


‘And sacrifice with prostitutes : 


HOSEA. 


28 


And as for the undiscerning people, they shall be overthrown, 


15 


Though thou, O Israel, art lewd, 


Yet let not Judah be found guilty ; 


Come ye not to Gilgal, 


Neither go ye up to Beth-aven, 
Nor use the oath, “ Jehovah liveth.” 


were guilty; but would punish with 
condign punishment their natural pro- 
tectors, who not only abandoned them to 
seduction, but themselves rioted in the 
same wickedness. Thus Munster: ‘ Du- 
rissimé animadvertam in parentes et 
sponsos, ut filie et sponsee eorum punite 
videantur esse extra ponam.” ‘The 
transition from the second to the third 
person, for the purpose of more graphi- 
cally exhibiting the subject of discourse, 
is not without examples. See Is. xxii. 
16. The use of the separate pronoun t7, 
also adds to the emphasis of the language. 

+78, in Piel, strongly marks the studied 
withdrawment of the Israclites from the 
assembled throngs, to such places as were 
devoted to scenes of impurity; while 
mat, in the same conjugation, signifies 
in this connection, to commit lewdness as 
an act of idolatrous devotion. Between 
mi2t, and migtp, there seems to be this 
difference, that the former were ordinary 
females who prostituted themselves for 
gain, but the latter those who devoted 
_ themselves to the service of Astarte, by 
offering their persons to be violated in her 
temples at the sacred festivals. See Sel- 
den de Diis Syris, Synt. ii. cap. 2; Her- 
odot. lib. i. cap. 199; Euseb. Vit. Con- 
stantin. lib. iii. cap. 35; Spencer de Leg. 
Heb. lib. ii. cap. 22 and 23; Lucian de 
Dea Syra. Of this latter term, the mas. 

mwtp, catamites, occurs, 1 Kings xiv. 
24; xv. 12: xxii. 47; and in the ancient 
book of Job, chap. xxxvi. 14, which 
shows at how very early a period such 
abominations obtained. It likewise occurs 
in both genders in the prohibition, Deut. 
xxiii. 18, To these practices the LXX. 
doubtless had respect in rendering the 
word rereAcouévwy, initiated. Its deri- 
vation from wp, to be sacred, consecrated, 
or destined to the service of the temple, 
confirms our interpretation.—w2; Syr. 


ods, concitavit ; Arab. fa , conjecit 


in terram aliquem, in Niph. ¢o be cast 
down, overthrown, or the like. The verb 
occurs only here, and Proy. x. 8, 10, 
where see Schultens, 

15. A solemn warning to the Jewish 
kingdom to beware of mixing itself up 
with that of Israel in the practice of 
idolatry. Here m3, 40 commit lewdness, 
is again used figuratively. 8, properly 
signifies to contract guilt, or become sub- 
ject to its consequences. %3b:, Gilgal, 
was a town situated between the Jordan 
and Jericho, near the confines of the 
kingdom of Samaria. It was regarded 
as a holy place as early as the days of 
Joshua, chap. v. 15; and sacrifices were 
offered there to Jehovah in those of Sam- 
uel, 1 Sam. x. 8, 13; xy. 21, 33. In 
process of time, however, it came to be 
converted into a place of idolatrous wor- 
ship, Amos iv. 4, 5; Hos. ix. 15; xii. 
ll. 4:8 m3, Wath acon. i. e. the Robes 
of ties or idols, a name given by the 
minor prophets, by way of contempt, to 
Bethel, i. e. the house of God, a place 
sacred to true religion in the time of the 
patriarchs, and the judges; but after- 
wards selected by Jeroboam as the princi- 
pal seat of the worship of the golden 
calves, 1 Kings xii. 29, 32, 33; xiii. 1; 
Amos iii. 14; vii. 10,13; Jer. xlvui. 13. 
It originally belonged to the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, but was taken by that of Ephraim, 


* Judges i, 22-25. That there was a city 


of the name of Beth-aven near to Bethel, 
appears from Josh. vil. 2, which may 
have suggested the appropriation of the 
name to the latter. LXX. olxoy *Qy, 
reading 44x, the native name of Heli- 
opolis, Aq. and Symm. oloy avwpery 5 
Theod. ofxoy adixtas 5 and with this the 


Arab, agrees pvbias| cag» the house 


24 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. LV. 


16 Since Israel is refractory, like a refractory heifer ; 
Jehovah will now feed them, like a lamb in a large place. 


17 Ephraim is joined to idols; 
Leave him to himself. 


18 When their carousal is over they indulge in lewdness ; 
Her shields are enamored of infamy. 


of iniquity. Comp. Amos iv. 4; vy. 5. 
From the warning here given to the 
Jews not to participate with the Israelites 
in their idolatry, it is evident the proph- 
ecy was delivered at a time when they 
were comparatively free from that -evil. 
The prohibition not to swear by the for- 
mula min} °M, respects the combination 
of the divine name with those of idols, or 
the profession of attachment to Jehovah, 
if the persons addressed were guilty of 
idolatry. Comp. Zeph. i. 5. .That it 
was otherwise lawful to use it, appears 
from Jer. iv. 2. Comp. Deut. x. 20. 

16. The metaphor is here taken from 
a heifer that obstinately refuses to be 


an vy 
yoked. Thus the Syr. — A205 
oO 
{ jet - For the force of 45, comp. 
Deut. xxi. 18. The latter hemistich 


contains the language of irony. As lambs 
are fond of ranging at large, but are in 
danger of being lost or devoured, so God 
threatens to remove the Israelites into a 
distant and large country, where they 
would be separated from those with 
whom they associated in idolatrous wor- 
ship, and thus be left solitary and ex- 
posed as in a wilderness. The phrase 
an 2a npn, to feed in a large place, is 
elsewhere used in a good sense, Is. xxx. 
23. 

17. pes, Ephraim, as the most nu- 
merous and» ‘powerful of the tribes, and 
that in which the kingdom was estab-. 
lished, is put for all the ten. “1:23, from 
"an, to be joined, closely united, adhere 
to, to be allied to by voluntary choice, 
Gen. xiv. 8. In this last sense the term 
is here used. The Israelites had volun- 
tarily addicted themselves to the service 
of idols, and thus identified themselves 
with their interests. While the word 
tras, ¢dols, suggests the idea of their 
being merely the fabrication of human 


labor, it also intimates the pain or sorrow 
resulting from idolatry. The root has 
both significations. 4b—nman strongly 
implies the obstinacy and incorrigible 
character of the ten tribes, and indig- 
nantly abandons them to their fate, 
They are irreclaimably devoted to the 
gods of the heathen: let them take their 
own way, and reap the consequences of 
their perverse choice. Their case is des- 
perate. Comp. Jer. vii. 16; Ezek. xx, 
39. Thus Tanchum, Jarchi, Kimchi. 
Calvin, Tarnovius, Zanchius, Coverdale, 
Drusius, Lively, Leo Juda, Pococke, 
Kuinoel, Michaelis, Tingstadius, New- 
come, Stuck, and Ewald. Others, as 
the Targ. Jerome, Mercer, Diodati, 
Grotius, Rosenmiiller, Maurer, etc., re- 
gard the words as simply containing a 
warning to the inhabitants of Judah to 
keep aloof from, and take no part in the 
idolatries of the Ephraimites. The LXX. 
Zykev EavT@ ocrdvdadra, reading psn in 
the preterite, and supplying the idea of 
idols from the preceding part of the 
verse. 

18. Before =o, the particle px, when, 
is to be supplied, which in poetry, for 
the sake of conciseness and energy, is 
frequently omitted. For the acceptation 
past, passed away, over, etc. comp. 1 Sam. 
xv. 32, nyan—nie 19. Horsley, Ewald, 
and some others, are of opinion that => 
means vapid, degenerated, sour, etc., but 
less aptly. The meaning is, that no 
sooner were their compotations over than 
they indulged in excessive lewdness. 
Instead of tsad, their drink, drinking 
bout, one of De Rossi’s MSS. has originally 
read D°s24d, drunkards ; another BS23, 
their host; and one of Kennicott’ SD'NSD, 
Sabeans ; but none of these variations 
suits the entire construction of the verse, 
The LXX. strangely, jpérice xavavatous, 
which the Arab., as usual], follows. The 
impurity in which, when inflamed with 


Cuap. VY. 


HOSEA. 


25 


19 The wind hath bound her up in its wings, 
That they may be ashamed of their sacrifices. 


' liquor, they indulged, was most probably 
that connected with the worship of Ve- 
nus. To express the excess to which it 
was carried, the verb is first put in the 
infinitive absolute, and then repeated in 
the finite form. 427 is not separately 
expressed in the LXX. the Arab. or in 
either of the Syriac versions ; though it 
cannot hence be inferred that it was not 
in the Hebrew text. It is wanting, how- 
ever, in three of Kennicott’s MSS. If it 
did not originate in some copyist having 
written the two last syllables of the pre- 
ceding word over again, it must be re- 
garded as having originally formed part 
of that word in the reduplicate form 
MAMI in which, not only is the second 
syllable ‘of the verb repeated (anim), 

but the pronominal sufformative is re- 
tained in the middle of the word, and the 
first radical (s) rejected on that account 
in the reduplication. Such form is of 
extremely rare occurrence: “23nn%3x, 
lit. they destroy, destroy me, Ps. Ixxxviii, 

17, being the only other instance of the 
kind with which I am acquainted. In 
this way the form is partly accounted for 
by the ancient Jewish grammarian Abu- 
walid Ibn Jannahi, as quoted by Pococke. 
What confirms this view of the redupli- 
cate form is the use of m:aman, a gemi- 
nation somewhat resembling” it, by our 
prophet, chap. viii. 138. The rendering 
give ye, as if it were the imperative of 
am, proposed by Abenezra and Kimchi, 
and adopted by our translators, is not so 
suitable to the connection. Maurer; 
mirifice amant ignominiam: Ewald; es 


lieben lieben schmach seine Schilde. 
Kuinoel very unjustifiably omits :275 in 
his Heb. Text. pop: shame, a collective 
abstract noun, expressive of the infamous 
acts connected with idolatrous worship. 
tn25%, shields, are tropically used for 
princes, as the natural protectors of their 
people, here and Ps. xlvii. 10. The femi- 
nine suffix 7, refers to vs understood ; 

the inhabitants being meant. 

19. By an expressive figure, borrowed 
from the sudden force with which any 
thing is carried off by the wind, the 
prophet announces the suddenness and 
violence with which the ten tribes should 
be removed from their land. The com- 
bination fan “p22, wings of the wind, is 
too firmly established in Hebrew usage, 
see Ps. xviii. 11; civ. 3, to allow either 
of the acceptations spirit or vanity being 
given to ran, or that of borders to 2°5:> 
in this place. man being of both genders, 
accounts for the masculine of the verb, 
and the feminine pron. affix. For mn4x, 
two of De Rossi’s MSS., and the Vat. 
and Alex. copies of the LXX. read mR, 
which gives no suitable sense. In the 
distant countries of the Medes, by whom 
all image-worship was held in abomi- 
nation, the exiles would be brought to a 
due sense of the wickedness and absurd- 
ity of their conduct. 4, in 4v=a> }» is 
used reAux@s. Jer. xlviii. 13. Sacrifices 
are here put by synecdoche for the whole 
system of idolatry in which they in- 
dulged. For the reading tnmay%%, of 
their altars, adopted by Newcome, there 
is no authority except the Targ. and byr. 





CHAPTER V. 


This chapter commences with an objurgation of the priests and the royal family, as the 
principal seducers of the nation to idolatry, 1,2. Then follows a description of the un- 
blushing wickedness of the people, interspersed with denunciations of impending punish- 


ment, 3-7. 


The approach of the divine judgments is ordered to be proclaimed, and their 


certainty declared, 8,9. The prophet then abruptly turns to the two tribes and a half 


HOSEA. 


26 Cuap. V. 


whose guilt and punishment he denounces; yet so as to show that his predictions were 
chiefly directed against the northern kingdom, the rulers of which, like those of Judah, 
instead of looking to Jehovah for deliverance from civil calamities, applied in vain for 
foreign assistance, 10-14. The 15th verse sets forth the certainty and the beneficial effects 
of the divine judgments. 





1 Hear this, O ye priests! 
And hearken, O house of Israel! 
Give ear, O house of the king! 
For the sentence is against you, 
Because ye are a snare at Mispah, 


And a net spread upon Tabor. 


2 The apostates slaughter to excess, 
But I will inflict chastisement. on them all. 


1. Syn na, house of Israel, i. e. the 
ten tribes. ° qbon nova, house of the king, 
i. e. the king and his court. From the 
references made to the idolatry and 
punishment of Judah in this and the 
following chapter, it would appear that 
the king whom Hosea had specifically 
in view was Pekah, the son of Remaliah ; 
since it was in the reign of Ahaz, who 
was contemporary with him, that idol wor- 
ship was carried to such a height in that 
kingdom as to call for the calamities in- 
flicted upon it by the confederate forces 
of Israel and Syria, as well as by the 
king of Assyria. By ved b> is not 
meant, as the Targ. interprets, followed 
by Abenezra, Kimchi, Abarbanel, Pag- 
ninus, Junius, Tremellius, and others, 
that it belonged to them to know and 
execute justice, but that the judgment 
or punishment was directed against them. 
They had merited it, and it was now 
coming upon them. LXX. apds indas 
éort 7d xplua. Thus most Christian 
expositors. 5x72, Mispah. As there 
were several places of this name, some 
degree of uncertainty attaches to it as 
occurring here; but as the object of the 
prophet seems to be to set forth the 
means employed for seducing the whole 
of the ten tribes to idolatry, it is more 
probable that he had in his eye Mispah 
of Gilead, on the east of the Jordan, just 
as he specifies mount Tabor to the west 
of that river. See Judges x. 17; xi. 29. 


On both of these elevated positions false 
worship had been established for the pur- 
pose of ensnaring the inhabitants of the 
adjacent regions. ‘The means employed 
to bring them over to it are compared to 
the snares and nets used for catching 
birds and wild beasts upon the mountains. 
By metonymy, the leaders of the people 
are spoken of as such nets and snares, 
because of their bad example, and the 
influence which they otherwise exerted 
for evil. 
none, slaughtering, the infinitive 
abeohute; with  paragogic, of nny, to 
kill, for food or sacrifice. Here, from its 
close connection with the preceding verse, 
it has the latter signification. Some 
think murder is meant; but this is less 
likely, though the verb is also used in 
this sense in other places. Ip aE NUM, 
lit. they deepen to slaughter, i. e. by a 
peculiar idiom, they slaughter to excess, 
kill an immense number of sacrificial 
victims. Comp. m0 spar; Is. xxxi. 
6. Dru, apostates, the Berioni participle 
of wxv, to turn aside, decline Srom the 
right way, apostatize; as Drs, scoffers, 
from ads to scoff. Comp. Ps. xl. 5, 
ar> ‘uy, those that turn aside to false- 
hood; and buon, Ps. ci. 3. Twoor 
three MSS., the edit. of Soncin., and a few 
others, have > instead of w, in our text. 


Syr. ation}, seduxit, | Zoladmts 


dectinatio, apostasia. The jdolatrous 


Cuar. V. “HOSEA. 27 
3 I know Ephraim, 
Israel is not hid from me; 
Surely now thou committest lewdness, O Ephraim! 
Israel is defiled. 
4 They frame not their deeds 
To return to their God ; 
For a lewd spirit is within them, 
And they regard not Jehovah. 
5 The pride of Israel testifieth to his face ; 
Therefore Israel and Ephraim shall fall through their iniquity ; 
Judah also shall fall with them. 


Israelites multiplied their sacrifices in 
order that they might enjoy prosperity 
under the protection of the deities to 
whom they offered them; but Jehovah 
here declares that none of them should 
escape the punishment which he was 
about to inflict upon them. Before -o5% 
supply n2msx. The ancient versions ‘are 
here greatly at fault, from their authors 
having supposed that the reference to 
hunters is still continued in this verse. 

3. Ephraim, as distinguished from 
Israel, means the tribe of Ephraim, 
from which most of the apostate kings 
sprang, and in which idolatry most 
abounded. By Israel the other nine 
tribes are meant. As having incurred 
the more aggravated guilt, the former is 
here addressed in the second person. 
Two of Kennicott’s MSS. indeed, and 
one of De Rossi’s, originally read 52777 ; 
and one of Kennicott’s has mnnnens “for 
sv2, but both are, in all probability, 
from the hand of correctors. 434m is 
here used figuratively. The polluting 
influence of the Ephraimites was felt 
through the whole nation. To express 
an assertion more strongly the Hebrews 
put it first in the form of an affirmative, 
and then in that of a negative. pn 1D, 
now, is not without emphasis; pointing 
out the undeniable fact that they had 
been the cause of the spread of idolatry. 

4. The language now changes to the 
plural, to express the character of the 
people generally. By some en-ddz1 is 
construed as the nominative to 33m, and 
rendered, their deeds do not permit them, 
etc. Thus the Syr. Abenezra, Drusius, 
etc.; and among the moderns, Horsley, 


Tingstadius, Manger, Kuinoel, Stuck, 
Maurer, and Ewald. But in order to 
establish this construction, we should 
have to read Ea37 or ENS 53%", “ per- 
mitted them,” the accusative of the per- 
son always following the verb in such 
case. See Gen. xx. 6; Exod. ii. 19. 
In the present instance 4nm3 is used in 
the sense of placing, ordering, framing, 
like pay and nw, as it is given in the 
common version, and rendered by Tan- 
chum, Leo Juda, Mercer, Tarnovius, 
Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, Noyes, and 
Hitzig. The meaning is, that the Is- 
raelites did not reform, did not so regard 
their wicked practices as to abandon 
them and return to the pure worship of 
Jehovah. 

5. That 3 123 means to ¢estify for or 
against any person or thing, is obvious 
from its use, Gen. xxx. 33; Job. xvi. 8. 
It is properly a Judicial phrase, and re- 
fers to the testimony given by a witness, 
either for or against another, according 
to circumstances. ‘The rendering ¢o be 
humbled, which is that of the LXX. Syr. 
Targ. Jarchi, and recently of Michaelis, 
Newcome, Noyes, and Maurer, cannot 
be philologically sustained. The addition 
W"2E3, to his face, gives emphasis to the 
phrase, openly, publicly, in such a manner 
that he himself may see it, without the 
adduction of further evidence. That 
JANA signifies pride, insolence, notwith- 
standing what Horsley asserts to the con- 
trary, is sufficiently apparent from Prov. 
xvi. 18, and Is. xvi. 6. I should rather 
think, however, that by the term as here 
used, we are to understand the objects of 
which the ten tribes were proud, their 


28 


HOSEA. 


Cuapr. VY. 


6 With their flocks and their herds, 


They may go to seek Jehovah, 


But they shall not find him: 


He hath withdrawn from them. 


7 They have proved false to Jehovah ; 
For they have begotten strange children: 
Now shall a month destroy them and their portions, 


splendid or magnificent idols, ete. As 
Jehovah is spoken of as ap >2 Via, the 
excellency, or boast of Jacob, Amos viii 
7, so the idols might be called j4s3 
tsnw, the excellency, or proud boast of 
Israel. They gloried in them as the 
objects of their confidence and attach- 
ment. ‘These very gods, by their utter 
impotence, bear open witness that they 
could afford no help to those who trusted 
in them; so that their worshippers could 
not but have been convinced of their 
folly, if their hearts had not become mor- 
ally obscured by the practice of iniquity. 
The religion itself (G25 3, their iniquity,) 
from which they expected safety, would 
prove the cause of their ruin. The words 
are repeated with a similar reference 
chap. vii. 10. 

The concluding line of the verse con- 
tains an abrupt and unexpected appli- 
cation of the threatening to the Jews. 
As they had suffered themselves to be 
influenced by the example of the Israel- 
ites, they should also share in their 
punishment. ‘The respective captivities 
of both are here threatened. On com- 
paring this threatening with chap. iv. 15, 
it appears to have been delivered at a 
period considerably subsequent to that 
which is there spoken of, when the eyils 
of idolatry had made some progress in the 
southern kingdom. To express more 
strongly the certainty of the event, the 
verb bye i is put in the preterite ; whereas 
it had simply been used in the future 
wby>%, in reference to the Israelites. 

6. "The idolaters are here told that 
though in the hour of calamity they 
might bring their flocks and herds as 
propitiatory sacrifices to Jehovah in order 
to avert the punishment, it would be 
altogether in vain. > signifies to draw 
or put off any person or thing, to 
withdraw one’s self. Comp. the Arab. 


Yoda, salvus evasit, progressus est, 
and >, extraxit, exuit. Pococke’s 


Arab. MS. has KiS 9.20 : xy 


, God hath withdrawn his help 


Jrom them. The Israelites and Jews 
could no longer reckon on the divine 
presence, and the effectual aid which that 
presence implied. 

7. The prophet seems here to allude to 
the mention made of 62537 "15%, and 
Bw2527 723, lewd children, chap. a 
4, pont, strdnge, foreign, is selected in 
order to'show that the idolatry was the 
result of intercourse with foreigners. The 
verb 133, ¢o act unfaithfully, is also used 
of the breach of the matrimonial cove- 
nant, Jer. iii. 20. This idea is expressed 


in the Arab. MS. of Pococke, 


| 9 ) aes x) {, they have broken the cove- 


nant of God, > has here the signifi- 
cation of itague, and marks the conse- 
quence of the conjugal infidelity just 
specified —the production of a race of 
idolaters. The relation of the words is 
well expressed by Stuck : *‘ quoniam Deo 
infideles sunt, propterea liberos peregrinos 
habent.” nz, now, is here to be taken 
not as determining the exact point of 
present time, but the speedy and certain 
arrival of the event. The term 4h, 
month, has greatly, and, in my opinion, 
very unnecessarily perplexed interpreters, 
Houbigant at once cuts the knot by an 
arbitrary emendation: wh DS=N mrs, 
omnino est legendum bomnm box* amy, 
nunc igitur absumet rubigo, He appeals 
to the épvaiBn of the LXX. as his author- 
ity ; but épvotBn signifies mildew, with 
which 475m, @ locust, the word he pro- 
poses to substitute for *1n,has no manner 
of affinity. That the same word which 


* 


Cuap. V. 


8 Blow ye the horn in Gibeah, 


The trumpet in Ramah ; 
Raise a shout at Beth-aven; 


He is behind thee, O Benjamin! 
9 Ephraim shall become desolate 


In the day of punishment; 
Among the tribes of Israel 


HOSEA. 


29 


Ihave made known that which is sure. 


is now in the Hebrew text was found in 
it in the time of Aquila, is evident from 
his rendering it veounvia. 
Theod. have phy. Michaelis, Dathe, 
Kuinoel, and Stiudlin, give to the word 


the signification of the Arab. Gocks 


what is new and unexpected, and explain 
it of a sudden calamity. Most moderns 
take it in the sense of new-moon. i. e. 
either at the feast of the new moon, 
when the Israelites were assembled to 
worship; or, at that time their calamities 
should commence. It seems most natu- 
ral to abide by the usual meaning of the 
term, and consider the prophet as an- 
nouncing, that within the space of one 
month they should be visited with merit- 
ed punishment. The calamity pre- 
dicted seems to have been that occasioned 
by the invasion of Tiglath-pileser, who 
ravaged the country, and carried into 
captivity the tribes of Reuben and Gad, 
the half-tribe of Manasseh, and that of 
Naphtali, besides the inhabitants of 
several cities in other parts of the 
country, 2 Kings xv. 29; 1 Chron. v. 26. 
That Judah also suffered on this occasion, 
see 2 Chron. xxviii, 19-21. enrptn, 
their portions, are commonly — 
to mean their possessions or pro 

but I should rather think the prophet 
has in view their idols, whom they re- 
garded as the authors of their possessions 
and enjoyments. See Is. lvii. 6, and my 
Comm. on that verse. 

8. An alarm is ordered to be given to 
the southern kingdom of the approach of 
the enemy. The verse intimately coheres 
with the foregoing, and is not to be taken 
for the commencement of a new proph- 
ecy, as Jerome, Abarbanel, Michaelis, 
Dathe, Manger, and others, suppose. 
The difference between the =p‘ and the 


Symm. and: 


mass seems to be, that the former was 
the ‘same as the 72p Aorn, being made 
of the curved horn of cer Josh. vi. 


5, 6, 8. Arab. 


nibus instructus; whereas, the latter 
was made of metal, such as the two silver 
trumpets which were employed for con- 
voking the congregation, Numb. x. 2 


from ax, Arab. 


%, tituus forami- 


, in angustiam 


redegit ; angusto pectore preditus fuit. 
Gesenius considers the word to be an 
onomatopoetic, imitating the broken 
pulse-like sound of the trumpet, (Adtzot- 
zérah,) like the Latin taratantara, and 
the German trarara. Their shape and 
size may be seen in the representations 
of the arch of Titus. Comp. Jer. iv. 5; 
Joel ii. 1; Hos. viii. 1. The LXX. ren- 
der mya, Gibeah, and 7725, Ramah, 
rovs Bouvods and rav inday, as if heights 
or elevated places in general were meant 5 
but they are to be taken as proper names, 
just as Beth-aven and Benjamin are. 
They both lay in the tribe of Benjamin, 
see on Is. x. 29, as did also Bethel, here 
called Beth-aven. See on chap. iv. 15. 
Before >> Mx subaud. axis, the enemy 
“is behind thee,” i. e. close upon thee. 
The fifth Greek version has kar& vdrov 
ov, to the south of thee ; but if the local 
signification were at all admissible, the 
west is the only sense in which the word 
could be understood. 

9. Having apprised the Jews of the 
danger with which they were threatened, 
the prophet returns to describe the ca- 
lamity which was to be inflicted upon 
the ten tribes; and in the course of the 
following verses directs his discourse to 
the two kingdoms alternately. The 
nominative to minn is ys, implied in 
DIMES. nNsin, ‘orinarily’ means proof 


30 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. V- 


10 The rulers of Judah are like those who remove the boundary ; 
IT will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 


11 Ephraim is oppressed, 
He is crushed in judgment ; 
Because he consented, 

He followed the order. 


12 I am as a moth to Ephraim, 


And as rottenness to the house of Judah. 
13 And Ephraim saw his sickness, 


And Judah his wound; 


or demonstration, from fiz, to be before 
one, be clear, obvious ; in Hiph. to place 
before one in the way of evidence, con- 
vince, convict, and then rebuke, chastise, 
punish. The word is synonymous with 
mon, ver. 2, The latter hemistich of 
the verse shows that the ten tribes were 
the scene of the prophet’s ministry. 

TPANZ, the feminine used for the neuter. 

‘1 ‘By the “princes” or “rulers of 
Judah,” king Ahaz and his courtiers are 
intended. For $423 “5° ‘0722, comp. 
Deut. xxvii. 17; amen bana asd AIAN 
Prov. xxii. 28; xxiii. 10; Job xxiv. 2. 
It was reckoned a flagrant offence to re- 
move the marks by which the divisions 
of property were defined. The language 
seems to have become proverbial to desig- 
nate unprincipled conduct. What the 
prophet here reprobates appears to be the 
means adopted by Ahaz and his sup- 
porters to introduce idolatry into Judah. 
See 2 Kings xvi. 10-18. If the > be 
regarded as the Caph veritatis, it ‘will 
strongly express the fact that these 
princes had actually removed the bound- 
aries which separated the true religion 
from the false. Divine judgments are 
frequently compared to the overflowing 
of water from a river. £¥, ¢o pour out, 
expresses the fulness of their infliction. 
Comp. Zeph. iii. 8. m4 29, prop. efer- 
vescence, flowing over, also denotes the 
greatness of the punishment. 

th. DE yas, the genitive of cause, 
broken in pieces by the judgment, or pun- 
ishment inflicted. 4x refers not to any 
divine commandment, but to the order 
issued by Jeroboam to worship the golden 
calves, 1 Kings xii. 28-33. Such an 
order his subjects were bound by higher 


authority to have resisted; but they 
readily complied with it, and thus became 
prepared to indulge in all the gross idol- 
atries to which this worship proved the 
introduction. From the circumstance 
that the LXX. have rendered the pas- 
sage drlcw tav patalwy, after vanities, 
it has been conjectured that they read 
wig instead of 1; but it is more likely 
they intended to give the sense of the 
whole, rather than the signification of 
this particular word. They are followed 
by both the Syriac versions, and in part 
by the Targ. Jerome, on the other hand, 
has read the same letters which now stand 
in the text; for he renders sordes, 
pointing the word 4x, and regarding it 
as merely a contracted form of xix 
or mNix, filthiness. 


12. The reference inwy, Arab. XX 


moth, is to the consumption of phe 
Ps. xxxix. 12; Is. 1.9; in apn, rotten- 
ness, to that of wood. See Job xiii. 28, 
where both words occur together as here. 
The LXX. freely render the former by 
Tapax’h, the latter by xévtpov. The 
meaning is not that God was regarded 
as the moth and rottenness, z e. with 
disgust; but that he was the author of 
those judgments by which the idolaters 
should be consumed. 

13. m7, to see, has here the sense of 
feeling, experiencing, as in the phrases 
to see life, death, good, evil, etc. “773, lit. 
a bandage, from “13, ¢0 compress, bind as 
a wound, see Is. i. 6; hence, as here, @ 
bandaged wound, cosresponding to "bh, 
sickness, disease, in the other member of 
the parallelism. For the use of such 
metaphors in application to the state of 


* 


Cuap. V. 


HOSEA. 


31 


Then Ephraim went to Assyria; 


He sent to the hostile king ; 
But he could not cure you, 


Nor remove your wound from you. 
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, 

And like a young lion to the house of Judah ; 

I, even I will tear the prey, and depart; 

I will carry it away, and there shall be none to rescue. 
15 I will depart, I will return to my place, 


Till they suffer punishment ; 


political affairs, comp. Is. i. 5, 6, iii. 7; 

Hos. vi. 1, vii. 1. After modos, supply 
as its nominative, 77375}: Judah, from 
the preceding part of the verse, which 
forms an alternate quatrain; the third 
line connecting with the first, and the 
fourth with the second. 2° is not a 
proper name, but an appellative, signi- 
fying one who contends, is contentious, 
hostile ; from 2>-, to strive with, quarrel, 
contend. The form is the apocopated 
future, and is contracted for 2°52 "2s, 


he that acts hostilely. Tanchum (Xx iv 
ly, the king that contended. 


Comp. 2°974>, Jotarib, Neh. xi. 5. Aq. 
dicaCduevoyv; Symm. &dicov, or éxducy- 
atv; Theod. xpirny. Jerome, ad regem 
ultorem. De Wette, Der kinig der 
rachen soll. That the king of Assyria is 
meant there can be no doubt. See chap. 
x. 6. He was ever ready to mix himself 
up with the affairs of neighboring states, 
in order to extend or consolidate his 
gigantic empire, and was justly regarded 
by the Hebrews as their most powerful 
adversary. ‘The application made by the 
northern kingdom was that which took 
place in the reign of Menahem, when 
that monarch sent to Pul a thousand 
talents of silver for the purpose of en- 
gaging him on his behalf, 2 Kings xv. 
19. But this alliance proved of no real 
value; for the subsidy was raised by op- 
pression, and in the course of the fol- 
lowing reign, Tiglath-pileser invaded and 
depopulated great part of the country, 
ver. 29. The embassy from the king- 
dom of Judah was that sent by Ahaz to 
Tiglath-pileser, when attacked ‘by the 
united kings of Syria and Israel, 2 Kings 


xvi. 7,8; 2 Chron. xxviii. 21. mma as 
a verb, occurs only in this place; but a 
noun derived from it is used Prov. vii. 
22, in the sense of healing. If we may 


y 
judge from the Syr. lon. recedere, 


Sugere, Aph. liberare, it properly signifies 
to remove, relieve, and so with respect to 
a wound, to heal. LXX. ob ph diaraton 5 


Syr. Saal tho, neque sanabit. 


14. No effort to recover a state of pros- 
perity while the anger of Jehovah was 
excited against them, could possibly suc- 
ceed. dmv, the black lion, and “52, 
the young lion, are frequently employed 
to convey the ideas of strength and feroc- 
ity, Ps. xci. 13. The reduplication *28 
"28 is, as usual, emphatic. Comp. Is. 
xlili., 25; xlviii. 15. mB40, prey, is un- 
derstood after 974 and xv. 

15. As God’s coming to a people, and 
being with them, implies their experi- 
encing efficient protection and aid, so his 
withdrawment of his presence implies the 
deprivation of these blessings. twx, like 
many other verbs, has a sensus pregnans ; 
conveying not only the idea of contracting 
guilt, but of suffering tts consequences. 
The latter idea seems clearly to. be con- 
veyed in this passage. The Rabbins, in- 
deed, and after them, Glassius, and many 
others, attempt to attach to the verb the 
superadded signification of acknowledging, 
which is that adopted by our translators ; 
but it is by no means supported by Lev. 
iv. 22; v.5; Zech. xi. 5; the passages 
usually adduced in proof, "B"DB OPS, 
to seek the face of any one, means to 
strive to obtain his favor. See 1 Kings 


32 HOSEA. Cuar. VI. 


Then will they seek my face: 
When they are in trouble, they will seek me early. 


x. 24; Prov. xxix. 26. The phrase 
occurs very frequently in the Psalms, in 
reference to application to Jehovah in 


prayer. Comp. Dan. ix. 3. “hw is 
synonymous with ¢p3, but is only used 
in poetic diction. 





CHAPTER VI. 


The nation, in both its divisions, is here introduced as taking up language suitable to the cir- 


cumstances described in the concluding verses of the preceding chapter, 1-3; but however 
appropriate it was to the condition of the people, that it was not the result of sound and 
thorough conversion, appears from ver. 4, in which they are expostulated with on the 
ground of their inconstancy. Notice is then taken of the means, both of a moral and a 
punitive nature, that had been employed for their recovery, 5,6; their deceitful and wicked 
conduct, especially that of the Israelites, is placed in a strong light, 7-10; and a special de- 
nunciation of punishment is directed against the Jews, who flattered themselves with the 


hope that whatever might befall the northern tribes, no calamity would happen to them, 


Come, let us return to Jehovah, 


For he hath torn, but he will heal us; 
He hath smitten, but he will bind us up. 


1, 2. It has been disputed whether 
these words be those of the prophet ex- 
horting his countrymen to repent and 
turn to God, or whether they are to be 
regarded as employed by themselves to 
give expression to their feelings of peni- 
tence, their confidence in God for de- 
liverance from punishment, and _ their 
resolutions of amendment for the future. 
The latter appears, from the bearing of 
ver. 5, to be the preferable interpretation. 
The intimate connection of the words 
with the preceding context, and the repe- 
tition, in part, of its language, induces to 
the conclusion that the same subject is 
here continued, viz. the castigation of 
the Hebrew kingdoms on account of 
idolatry, and the effect produced by it. 
This connection the ancient versions have 
endeavored to establish by inserting a 


He will restore us to life after two days: 


word corresponding to sicx>; though it 
is not found in any Heb. MSS. From 
the apparent agreement of the language 
of ver. 2, with the circumstances of time 
connected with the death and resurrection 
of our Saviour, many interpreters, as 
Lactantius, Tertullian, Origen, Jerome, 
Augustine, Luther, GEcolampadius, Mer- 
cer, Riberus, Tarnovius, Hammond, ete., 
have maintained that it is to these respect 
is had in the prophecy. I fully concur, 
however, in the judicious remarks of 
Calvin on this interpretation, “ Sed sensus 
ille videtur mihi nimium argutus. Et 
semper hoc spectandum est nobis, ne 
volitemus in aére; placent argutee specu- 
lationes primo intuitu, sed postea evanes- 
cunt. Ergo quisquis volet proficere in 
Scripturis, semper hance regulam teneat, 
ut solidum sit quicquid colligit sive in 


Cuapr. VI. 


HOSEA. 


33 


On the third day he will raise us up, 


And we shall live before him. 


3 Then we shall know, we shall strive to know Jehovah: 
Like the dawn, his going forth is fixed. 
Yea, he will come to us like the rain, 
Like the latter ram, which watereth the earth. 


prophetis, sive in Apostolis.” The exe- 
gesis of Grotius, Horsley, and many 
others, who regard the words as primarily 
applicable to the Jews, and secondarily, 
or allusively, to the resurrection of Christ, 
is equally unsatisfactory. The simple 
meaning of the passage is, that on their 
conyersion from the service of idols to 
that of Jehovah, the Hebrews should ex- 
perience the removal of the national 
calamities with which they had been 
visited ; the nation which had been re- 
duced to a state of political death would 
be resuscitated, and enjoy a renewal of 
its former prosperity. From the meta- 
phor of disease, ver. 1, there is in ver. 2, 
an advance to that of actual death, and 
a consequent resurrection, in order to 
place their present and also their antici- 
pated condition in a more striking light. 
For the use of the latter metaphor in 
application to the national affairs of the 
Jews, see Is. xxvi. 19; Ezek. xxxvii. 1- 
14. swxdsvm tha, on the third day, is 
expletive of nana, after days, i. e. two 
days; LXX. wera S00 jucpas. That a 
short period is meant, appears from ¢wo 
and two three being used to denote a few, 
or very few, 1 Kings xvii. 12; Is. vii. 21, 
xvii. 6. Comp. Luke xiii. 32, 33. The 
afflicted Hebrews confidently hoped that 
their punishment would be of brief dura- 
tion, and that God would assuredly 
restore them to the enjoyment of his 
favor. Such enjoyment is expressed by 
living "25, before him, experiencing 
his presence and blessing, The phrase 
contrasts with that employed chap. v. 15, 
and indicates the result of "25 wpa, 
there predicted. 

3. In ped mes my721, there is a 
rise from a resolution simply to acquire a 
true knowledge of Jehovah, to a determi- 
nation to make such knowledge the 
object of earnest and unwearied pursuit. 


i) 


The m= of the elongated futures marks 
this bent or inclination of mind. To 
separate the verbs, and connect the former 
with the preceding verse, as Horsley 
does, would quite destroy the force of the 
prophet’s language. At the same time 
the 1 at the beginning of the verse is 
inferential, intimating that what follows 
would be the result of the divine inter- 
position on behalf of the Hebrew people. 
Some few MSS. insert 4 before mE249. 
ji22, to be fixed, established, certain. 
As certain and delightful as the dawn of 
the morning would be the coming forth 
of the favor of Jehovah after the dark 
night of adversity. This beautiful meta- 
phor is taken from the sunrise. See, for 
such application of xxix, Ps. xix. 7. 
The other images were peculiarly appro- 
priate in Palestine, where rain falls sel- 
dom, except in spring and autumn. At 
these seasons it is heavy, and greatly 
contributes to the fertility of the soil, on 
which account its bestowment was re- 
garded as among the most necessary of 
temporal blessings, and its absence a 
source of awful calamity. The former, 
commonly called m4», or mio, the 
darting rain, from the root 7, ‘to dart, 
cast, etc.; here Dyan, the rain, by way 
of eminence; the heavy, violent rain, as 
the word properly signifies. It falls 
from the middle of October till about the 
middle of December, and is called the 
early or former rain. LXX. Serds 
mpdiwos, because the Jews commenced 
their year at that time. It prepares the 
ground for the reception of the seed. 
wird, the latter rain, LXX. derds 
bWuos, falls in the latter half of February 
and during the months of March and 
April, just before the harvest; from 
which circumstance it receives its name 
—vz, signifying to gather or collect, the 
late fruit. Comp. wpb, to collect, Syr. 


54 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. VI. 


4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim! 
What shall I do to thee, O Judah! 
For your goodness is like the morning cloud, 
And like the dew which early departeth. 
5 For this cause I have hewed them by the prophets, 
I have slain them by the words of my mouth: 
Thy judgments went forth like the lightning. 
6 or I desired mercy and not sacrifice ; 
And the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings, 


° 


aod, serotinus. Before m4" supply 


“tr. 

"4, That the declarations contained in 
the preceding verses are not to be viewed 
as divine promises, but express the hopes 
and resolutions of the afflicted Hebrews, 
appears from the affecting expostulations 
here addressed to them, and the descrip- 
tion of the temporary and evanescent 
character of their boasted reformation. 
Like a tender parent who is anxious, if 
possible, to reclaim a wayward child, Je- 
hovah asks what other means could possi- 
bly be employed for the recovery of his 
rebellious people. They had been tried 
both with mercies and judgments, but 
without effect. Comp. Is. v. 4-7. son 
properly means kindness, benignity, mer- 
cy; here piety, religion, as Is. xl. 6, 


> > Vv 
Syr. ceo eosad, your goodness ; Po- 
cocke’s Arab. MS. 


ton. Theodoret not inaptly gives the 
meaning thus: 4 map’ duav yevoudvn 
MeTauéAcia TpdcKaipos eoTt, Kal ov diapKijs. 
In Palestine, and other countries of the 
same latitude, the dense clouds which 
cover the heavens during the morning are 
all gone by nine or ten o’clock; and the 
dews, however copious, early disappear. 
na is here, as frequently, to be taken 
adverbially ; early, in the morning. As 


the cognate Ethiop. ine * signifies 
to carry a@ burden, and beasts of burden 
are usually loaded in the morning, the 
Hebrew =v came in Hiphil to signify 
the doing of any thing at an early hour. 
tn is not to be construed with ESN, 
but with bx. ys 


isd, your relig- 


5. The severity of the threatenings 
communicated through the instrumen- 
tality of the prophets is compared to the 
incisions made in stone or wood with the 
axe, and those made in the human body 
with the sword. Comp. Is. xi. 4; Heb. 
iv. 12, After »mash supply t or pn. 
To make the pronominal affixes agree, 
the LXX. Syr. and Targ. read -veEv, 
“my judgments,” and so likewise Dathe, 
Kuinoel, Boeckel, Newcome, Boothroyd, 
and Ewald, instead of JIRBLI, “thy 
judgments.” Vulg. judicia tua: Hexap. 


Syr. ya? jasc, There is no variety 
in the MSS., except that one of Kenni- 
cott’s, and originally one of De Rossi’s, 
have 4wstira, “thy judgment,” in the 
singular.’ "The reference of the affix is 
to 33, ver. 4; and the meaning is, the 
judgments which belong to thee, which 
thou deservedst, and which were inflicted 
upon thee. The genitive is that of object. 
Comp. Fev, 1 Kings xx. 40; RUE, 
Jer. li. 9; and especially 5-ue%%, Zeph. 
ii. 15. Thus Lyranus: “pone tibi 
inferende.” xx», though future, is 
modified by the preceding preterite, and 
is to be rendered accordingly. 4s has 
here the sense of ightning, as in Job 
xxxviil. 3, 15. The LXX. Syr. Targ. 
and Arab. supply 5 before -4s. Sudden 
and awful as the lightning were the in- 
flictions of merited punishment upon the 
idolatrous Hebrews. 

6. "om means here true piety, of which 
mercy or charity is only a branch. ny7 
tcrts corresponding to it in the second 
member of the verse, likewise means a 
practical knowledge of God, in opposition 
to that which is merely speculative. 
Comp. Jer, xxii, 16. The present is one 








Cuap. VI. 


HOSEA. 


35 


7 But they are like men that break a covenant: 


There they proved false to me, 


8 As for Gilead, it is a city of evil-doers; 


Marked with footsteps of blood. 


of several passages in the Old Testament, 
in which the comparative worthlessness 
of ceremonial observances is taught. 
See Is. i. 11-17; Ps. xl. 7-9, 1. 8-23; 
Mic. vi. 6-8. Comp. Matt. ix. 13. 
xii. 7. 

7. Translators and commentators have 
been greatly divided respecting the pre- 
cise meaning of 18 as occurring in this 
passage. Some, as Jarchi, Jerome, Leo 
Juda, Castalio, Grotius, Clarius, Manger, 
Tingstadius, Newcome, Rosenmiiller, 
Boothroyd, and Stuck, regard it as a 
proper name, and suppose the reference 
to be to the conduct of Adam in trans- 
gressing the divine commandment ; while 
Kimchi, Munster, Vatablus, ‘Tremellius, 
Beza, Drusius, Lively, Calvin, Rivetus, 
Piscator, Zanchius, Gicolampadius, Mer- 
cer, Lowth, De Wette, Maurer, Hitzig, 
Ewald, etc., take it to be an appellative, 
and interpret the passage of the treach- 
erous violation of contracts among man- 
kind. In favor of the former view, it is 
alleged, that it places the guilt of the Is- 
raclites in a much more aggravated light ; 
and Job xxxi. 33, Ps. lxxxii. 7, are ap- 
pealed to in proof of a similar allusion. 
It is, however, very doubtful whether 
there be any such allusion in these pas- 
sages; and as to the force of the com- 
parison, it seems sufficiently supplied by 
supposing men in general to be under- 
stood, who break the engagements into 
which they have entered with each other. 
The Israelites had treated God as if he 
had been one of themselves, and as if the 
sanctions of his covenant were as little 
to be regarded as those of ordinary con- 
tracts were by men of unprincipled char- 
acter. If we except the three passages 
in question, it is universally admitted 
that there is no other, after the first chap- 
ters of Genesis, in which D7 is used as 
a proper name, or in which any reference 
is made to our first parent. The abso- 
lute and indefinite form too in which 
m3 occurs, (comp. on the other hand 
“m3, “my covenant,” chap. vii. 1,) 


shows, that both this noun and the pre- 
ceding verb 552%, stand in immediate 
relation tot1n, which, as very frequently, 
is a collective,and is thus used instead 
of a plural, which it nowhere exhibits. 
It may also be objected to the first men- 
tioned interpretation, that nowhere in 
Scripture is God said to have entered 
into a m3, or covenant with Adam. 
The obligations under which he was 
placed are represented as those of a 
mis", command or interdict, rather than 
any of a federal nature. SND, like 
Edom, the reading proposed by Michaelis, 
has found no supporters. Before s123, 
supply 1s, of which there is frequently 
an ellipsis in Hebrew poetry. See Nol- 
dius, p. 103.— ty, there, points graphi- 
cally to the northern or Israelitish king- 
dom as the principal scene of idolatrous 
defection, and anticipates the regions 
more specifically referred to in the two 
following verses. 

8. 42 Sa, Gilead, is the nominative ab- 
solute, ‘and is here the designation of a 
city, in all probability Ramoth- Gilead, 
the metropolis of the mountainous region 
beyond Jordan, and south of the river 
Jabbok, known by the name of Gilead, 
Josh. xxi. 88; 1 Kings iv. 13. It was 
here that Jacob and Laban entered into 
a solemn covenant with each other, Gen. 
xxxi, 21, 28, 25. Burckhardt found 
ruins of cities on two mountains in that 
region, still known by the names of 
Djebel, Djelaid, and Djelaid, one or 
other of which may have been that here 
mentioned. It was one of the cities of 
refuge, Deut. iv. 43; Josh. xx. 8; but 
appears from the present passage to have 
afterwards become notorious for idolatry 
and bloodshed. Some would restrict 
328 7528 to idolaters, in imitation of the 
LXX. who render épyaCouévn pedrauo. 5 
but it seems better to take the phrase in 
its more enlarged meaning, as including 
all manner of wickedness. Of this, 
indeed, idolatry has ever been found to 
be the fruitful parent. Various expla- 


36 HOSEA. 


Cuap. VI. 


9 As troops of robbers lie in wait for a man, 


So is the association of priests: 


They commit murder in the way to Shechem ; 
Yea, they practise deliberate crime. 

10 In the house of Israel I have seen what is horrifying ; 
There is the lewdness of Ephraim ; 


Israel is polluted : 


11, Also for thee, O Judah! a harvest is appointed. 


nations of map ei have been advanced ; but 
the simplest is that which regards it as 
signifying traced, from =p3, the heel, step, 
print of the foot, and describing the marks 
or traces of blood left by the ‘feet of the 
murderers who resided there. Syr. 


o yY ° » v 
[orm Padso, stained with blood. 


Jewish Span. immunda de sangre. To 
what historical facts the prophet refers 
we have no information, except perhaps 
that contained in 2 Kings xv. 26, from 
which it appears that fifty of the inhab- 
itants of Gilead were implicated in the 
regicidal conspiracy against Pekahiah.. 

9. m>v, Shechem, was another city of 
refuge, ‘situated between Ebal and Ge- 
rizim. It still exists under the name of 


yee, Nabloos, and has, from very 


ancient times been the scat of the 
religious community of the Samaritans. 
Having been for a time the residence of 
Jeroboam, 1 Kings xii. 25, its inhabitants 
became so corrupted, that the priests 
resident there banded together, waylaid, 
and murdered with impunity the persons 
who were fleeing to the asylum for refuge. 
The pm in mew is that of direction, and 
connects in sense with S172. The inter- 
position of the verb mss between these 
two nouns occasions no ‘difficulty, since 
‘we have instances of nouns in construction 
fon, eeperetc See Gen. vii. 6; Is. 
xix. 8; Hos. xiv, 8. Our common ver- 
sion, sits many others, following the 
Targ. 4n "na, one shoulder, translate 
mas, with one consent, which well suits 
the connection; but is not borne out by 
Hebrew usage — the term occurring but 
once, Zeph. iii. 7, in this metaphorical 
acceptation, and then not 22% as here, 
but "hx t¥. 72 is generally consid- 


ered to be an imitation of the Chaldee 
form of the Infin. in Piel, from man, to 
wait, lie in wait for; but it seems more 
likely to be the abbreviated form of the 
Piel Participle »> 11, the 1 being dropped, 
as in Ma¥, Eccles. iv. 2, and in several 
instances of the Pual Participles. See 
Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 316. wes *Dh> will 
thus form the genitive of object. ‘Three 
MSS. substitute m for®; and instead of 
the prepositive 5, three MSS. and three 
printed editions read 3. Before "Sn 


be2m5 there is an ellipsis of 72) corres 


ponding to 5 in “2h2.— m3 is used to 
denote presumptuous or deliberate wicked- 


ness, from t%23; Arab. » proposuit 


sibi, to form a purpose, lay a deliberate 
plan of action ; chiefly employed in a bad 
sense. LXX. dyoula. Hitzig, Unthat, 

10. manansy, LXX. ppinddn, occurs 
under the forms saa7 20 and ma" EB, 
Jer. v. 30, xxiii. 14, xviii. 13. It is éx- 
plained immediately after of the atrocious 
idolatry which, through the influence of 
the tribe of Ephraim, had spread itself 
over the whole kingdom of Israel. 

11. For the various interpretations 
which have been given of this verse sce 
Tarnovius or Pococke. Ewald is the 
only modern that adopts branch as the 
rendering of -*x7, as Kimchi proposed, 
and explains it of the introduction of 
idolatry into Judah. How Horsley could 
assert that harvest is used in a good 
sense, as an image of the ingathering of 
the people of God, is inconceivable. See 
Jer. li. 33; Joel iii. 13; Rev. xiv. 15-20. 
Nowhcre in prophecy does it appear to 
be used in this sense. In all probability, 
the punishment predicted is that recorded, 
2 Chron, xxviii. 6-8. rv is here used 
impersonally. Instead of =>, four MSS. 
originally two more, the Targ. and two 








biti oe 


Cuap. VII. 


old editions, read m>. The words »3 wa 
"a9 raaw have no meaning, if con- 
nected with the preceding, which form a 
concise apostrophical warning to the 
Jewish kingdom. ‘They must, therefore, 


HOSEA. 


87 


be transferred to the following context, 
with which they will be found to be in 
harmony. ‘Thus Moerlius, Michaelis, 
Jahn, Eichhorn, Kuinoel, Stuck, De 
Wette, and Boothroyd, divide. 





CHAPTER VII. 


The prophet continues his description of the wickedness of the ten tribes. Regardless of Je- 
hovah, they persevered in falsehood and violence, 1, 2; flattered their rulers, and thereby 
obtained their sanction to their nefarious conduct, 3,5; and indulged to the utmost in 
licentiousness, 4-7. The murder of their kings successively is predicted, and their hardi- 


hood and folly are further set forth, 7-10. 


The prophet next adverts to their fruitless 


application for assistance to Egypt and Assyria, and their equally fruitless, because false 
professions of return to the service of God, 11-16. 





1 Wuen I reversed the captivity of my people, 


When I healed Israel, 


Then was the iniquity of Ephraim revealed, 
And the wicked deeds of Samaria; 


For they practised deceit ; 
The thief entered, 


And the banditti plundered in the street, 
2 And they considered not in their heart, 


1. Some would render manw sad3 
say, “ When I again lead my peoplé 
into captivity ;”’ but altogether contrary 
to the established usage of the language. 
See Deut. xxx. 3; Ps. xiv. 7; Jer. xxxi. 
23; Zeph. iii, 20. The words are ex- 
plained by the following tyy7> *se4>, 
when I heal Israel. 3 and > frequently 
alternate with each other, when used of 
the time at which any thing is done. 
The restoration here mentioned is in all 
probability that of the two hundred 
thousand Jewish captives, to which refer- 
ence is made 2 Chron. xxviii. 8-15. The 
conduct of the Israelitish rulers upon that 
occasion held out some hope of improve- 
ment in the character of the nation, and 
a consequent change in the Divine con- 
duct towards it; and this expectation 


was confirmed by-a-temporary cessation 
of the judgments of God, during which 
they might be said to have been healed ; 
but it was soon entirely frustrated by 
the open increase of wickedness among 
them. => 223 has the force of then, on 
the contrar’ Ys ‘become more manifest, ete. 
For Samaria, see on Is. xxviii. 1. Being 
the metropolis of the ten tribes, it was 
the head spring of that corruption of 
manners which overspread the kingdom. 
s)29 and 4v3ma wye describe the acts of 
violence that were committed by breaking 
into and plundering private houses, and 
those which were perpetrated on persons 
in the streets. The reference is not to 
foreign enemies, as Horsley and others 
expound, but to lawless Israelites. 

2. For the phrase 253 =72x, comp. the 


38 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. VIL 


That I remembered all their wickedness: 
Now their deeds encompass them ; 


They are before my face. 


3 With their wickedness they cheer the king, 
And with their falsehoods the princes. 


4 They are all adulterers ; 


They are like an oven, heated by the baker; 


Who resteth from heating it, 


From the time he kneadeth the dough, 


Until it be leavened. 
5 On the day of our king, 


Arab. as 3 Jl, and og JL 
X23; and our, say to one’s self. Ps. 
xiv. 1, e¢ freg. Instead of randd, the 
form exhibited in the printed “text, * to 
their heart,” ten MSS., originally seven 
more, now one, perhaps another, and the 
Complut. Bible, read prada, “in their 
heart.” One of De Rossi’s MSS. states 
in the margin that the latter reading is 
found in other copies. It is also sup- 
ported by the Syr. Vulg. Targ. and 
Arab. versions. Both forms describe in- 
ternal or mental conversation, only 5 
indicates an endeavor to persuade. So 
far were the persons spoken of from 
bringing themselves to act on the con- 
viction, that God was privy to their 
wicked deeds, that they evinced the con- 
trary disposition. Still, however, the 
phrase may best be rendered by think, 
consider, or the like. To the words 
bryb>22 «panav, two interpretations 
have been given. They either mean, 
that the evil practices of the Israelites 
crowded round them as so many causes 
of punishment, as enemies surround and 
shut up the object of their attack; or, 
that they crowded about them as so 
many witnesses to reveal the wickedness 
of their character. The latter would 
seem, from the following words, to be the 
true meaning. 

3. Their rulers, instead of repressing, 
took delight in the immoral and irre- 
ligious conduct of the people. 

4. In this connection, f"E82% is to be 

taken in its literal signification. Comp. 
Jer. ix. 1, xxiii. 10. For the conjecture 
of Stuck, that the word was originally 


pes, baked or cooked, there is no 
foundation. To place the violent and 
incontinent character of their lust in 
the strongest light, the prophet compares 
it to a baker’s oven, which he raises to 
such a degree of heat, that he only re- 
quires to omit feeding it during the short 
period of the fermentation of the bread. 
Such was the libidinous character of the 
Israelites, that their impure indulgences 
were subject to but slight interruptions. 
Comp. a&xaramaberous Guaptias, 2 Pet. ii. 
14. 493, in the feminine agrees with 
noon, which is of common gender. ‘The 
latter word Gesenius derives from the 
Aram. 42m, to smoke, and ‘13, fire. 


of; OM 
Comp. the Arab. yy and Syr. (son2 
fornax, clibanus. ‘The oven here referred 
to is not the pitcher-oven of the Arabs, 
but the larger kind, pretty much like our 
own, which was, as a still is, used in 
public bake-houses, Bsn nord is 
elliptical for burning, esas been kindled 
by the baker. Before nia> supply -¢y. 
The meaning is, who only ceaseth from 
heating, etc. Most interpreters take 
“392 in the sense of stirring, rousing up, 
etc., and apply it to the stirring of the 
fire in the oven; but it is preferable to 


regard it as the part. of 4"», Arab. le 


to be hot, burning; hence in Hiph. ta 
cause to burn, heat, etc. Thus the LXX. 
ard ris dAoyds. The interpretation from 
the city, given in the Syr. Targ. and 
Vulg. is altogether inappropriate. For 
the feminine form of the Infin. Snsn, 
Comp. n> ban, Ezek. xvi. 5. 
5. By ts is meant a festal day; 

either that of the king’s birth, or, as the 


Cuar. VII. 


HOSEA. 


89 


The princes are sick with the fever of wine; 
He stretcheth out his hand with the scoffers. 
6 For though they approach with their heart warm as an oven, 


Yet it is in their plot; 


Their baker sleepeth all the night ; 
In the morning it burneth like a blazing fire. 


Targ. Jarchi and Kimchi give it, that of 
his inauguration. The preposition 2 is 
understood. Michaelis thinks the reter- 
eree is to the accession of a new king to 
the throne. Instead of 325512, our hing, 
twenty-two MSS. and the Syr. read 
aazéi our kings; LXX. Tmepat TOV 
Baotrcwy buer. abn is used intransi- 
tively. ‘The LXX, ‘Syr. Targ. Vulg. 
Abarbanel, Leo Juda, Newcome, Michae- 
lis, and Boothroyd, refer this verb to the 
root $4; but, not to insist on its re- 
quiring in such case to be read w>TIM, 
there is something so intolerably tame in 
the rendering, ‘The princes degan to be 
heated with wine,” that it cannot be 
admitted as the language of the prophet. 
Besides, n72% would likewise require to 
be changed into nish, which would pro- 
duce an anomalous infinitive. rian, bot- 
tle, less agrees with x following than 


mon, heat. Comp, Arab. Rag’ Kg. 
57272 Nah is an instance of the construct 
state with a preposition intervening be- 
tween the nouns. Comp. bad “723, 
Ezek. xiii. 2; 477% N54 misd, Ts. li. 21, 
and see Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 679. The words 
mean the heat or fever produced by in- 
toxication. While the courtiers thus 
indulged to excess, the monarch, for- 
getting his dignity, participated in their 
cups, and joined in their scoffs. Because 
t*xx-> occurs nowhere else, Houbigant 
would have it changed into the usual 
form p°s>, most uncritically. Comp. 
yap and ysp. Aq. xAevaocrav; LXX. 
less properly, Aomav. The reduplicate 
form is intensive, and expresses the 
awfully profligate character of the per- 
sons described. 

6. I consider the prophet to be con- 
tinuing in this verse his description of 


the abandoned courtiers, in imagery | 


borrowed from that introduced ver. 4. 
In their intercourse with the monarch, 


they approached him with the warmest 
professions of loyalty; but in private 
they were scheming how to get rid of 
him. ‘The ringleader waited till he could 
conveniently carry the plot into exe- 
cution; and speedily they effected the 
nefarious purpose. Were it not that all 
the ancient versions render ;2"> as a 
verb, I should have been inclined ‘to point 
it (27h and translate, ** For their inward 
part is like an oven; their heart is in 
their plot.” Comp. oon pew. haqpsa, 
Jer. ix. 7. The rendering I have givén, 
however, equally suits the connection. 
Though there is no word in the text 
corresponding to “warm,” its insertion 
in the translation is fully justified by the 
comparison in 4,22, “éke an oven, and 
the intensitive force of 23p in Piel. That 
this verl® ever signifies to make ready or 
prepare, I do not find. All attempts to 
justify the rendering of the LXX. and 


vy 
Syr. dvexatSnpay, Saws, by the con- 


jectural readings sa4m, 224%, and 
amp, have proved abortive. According 


to the Hexapla, Symm. (tn OD -S), 
Aq. and Theod. (Q0}.59 ‘\W2Ss), 


read as we now do; as did likewise the 
Targ. ISEMN-— eres, their baker, 
(many MSS. and various printed editions 
have © "£8, which may also be regarded 
as a singular form, » taking the place of 
the third radical x, as in other nouns or 
participles derived from verbs in “7%,) 
the Targ. and Syr. render 447742") 
> > os 
soo 05, as if the reading were PES, 


their anger. °Edpau, found in the LXX. 
shows that the former must have been 
the reading of the MS. which they used, 
as the latter could not have so easily been 
mistaken for this proper name. 'T"Es, 


which Dathe proposes, and Kuinoel 


40 


7 They all glow as an oven, 
They devour their judges ; 
All their kings have fallen: 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. VIL. 


None among them calleth unto me. 
8 Ephraim mixeth himself up with the nations; 


Ephraim is a cake unturned. 
9 Strangers devour his strength, 
But he knoweth it not; 


Yea, gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, 


Yet he knoweth it not. 


adopts into his Heb. text, nowhere occurs 
in the sense, ira, furor, eorum. By 
“their baker’ seems to be meant the 
leader of the conspiracy, whom some 
suppose to be Menahem, others Shallum, 
2 Kings xv. 10-15; but I should rather 
infer from what is stated ver. 7, that the 
prophet includes all the conspiracies which 
took place in Israel. Having prepared 
the rest of the conspirators, he, like the 
baker, abided his time, when, of a sudden, 
the plot burst forth like a flame. 

7. Comp. 2 Kings xv. mp, all of 
them, corresponds to >>, ver. “4: 
is the future in Kal of pan, to be warm, 
hot, etc. The prophet still continues the 
comparison. As the fire in the oven 
devours the fuel, so the persons spoken 
of destroyed those who were in authority. 
23 is not to be taken in the sense of fall- 
ing ) off or apostatizing from God, as Jer- 
ome, Ribera, Menochius, Tirinius, and 
some others interpret, but in that of fall- 
ing by the hands of murderers. This, 
abo, they devour, in the preceding hemi- 
stitch, shows. ‘The source of the evil, 
however, lay in apostasy from Jehovah, 
which had reached such a height, that 
none implored the Divine aid even when 
in calamity. 

8. Ewald renders %b42m>, veraltet, 
“hath become old,” which might seem 
to derive some support from the latter 
part of ver 9; but the verb can, with no 
propriety, be referred to any other root 


than $53, Arab. huts, madefecit, com- 


~ v 
mistus fuit, Syr. Yas confudit, to 
miz by pouring, mix, confound. LXX. 


mor). 


cuveutyvuto. Syr. wad}: Targ. 


jaws. Comp. Psalm cyi. 35, where 
pr4aa snzn> is similarly used of promis. 
cuous intercourse with idolaters. That 
such intercourse generally, including the 
adoption of their idolatrous practices, and 
not specifically the entering into leagues 
with them, is meant, appears from the 
following clause, in which, to express the 
worthlessness of the Ephraimitish char- 
acter, the people are compared to a cake, 
which, from not having been turned, is 
burnt, and good for nothing. The Arabs 
bake their bread on the ground or hearth, 
covering it with hot embers, and turning 
it every ten minutes or quarter of an hour, 
to prevent its being burnt. When neg- 
lected it is unfit for food, and is thrown 
away. Such was the state of the apos- 
tate Israelites. They had corrupted 
themselves, and were only fit for rejec- 
tion. LXX. éyxpuias, bread baked in 
hot ashes, Cyril, ray ém AlSois émrope- 
vov UpTwv. 

9. ont, strangers, foreigners, i. e. the 
Syrians, ‘Assyrians, ete. See 2 Kings 
xill. 7; xv. 19, 20; xvii. 3-6. The 
state, drawind to its close, without the 
fact being observed by its citizens, is com- 
pared to a person on whose head gray 
hairs begin to make their appearance, 
without his becoming sensible of the ap- 
proach of age. 


‘“ Sparserit et nigras alba senecta co- 
mas.” Propertius. 


10-12. A repetition of part of chap. 
v. 5, which see, Though the apostate 
Israelites had abundant proof of the 


Cuap. VII. 


HOSEA. 


41 


10 The pride of Israel testifieth to his face, 
Yet they turn not to Jehovah their God, 


Nor seek him for all this. 


11 Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding ; 
They call in Egypt, they go to Assyria. 

12 As they go, I will spread my net upon them, 
I will bring them down like the fowls of heaven: 


I will chastise them, 


As it hath been heard in their assembly. 

13 Woe unto them! for they have wandered from me; 
Destruction unto them! for they have rebelled against me. 
Though it was I that redeemed them, 

Yet have they spoken lies against me. 

14 They cry not to me with their heart, 


But howl upon their beds: 


inefficiency of their idols, yet they re- 
turned not in the exercise of true repent- 
ance to God, who alone could deliver 
them in the hour of trouble, but formed 
alliances with foreign powers in the de- 
lusive hope of protection. The simplicity 
of the dove is ida Thus the 


ah there is satiny more Hauke 


Jen the dove. The word mn is here, 
however, used in a bad sense, “as ab PR 
without heart, i. e. without understand- 
ing, shows. ‘The point of comparison is 
the inconsiderate flight of the dove from 
one danger into another; from the alarm 
which makes her leave her abode for the 
net of the fowler. Such would be the 
case with the Israelites. Jehovah had 
distinctly announced to them, that for- 
eign alliances would prove their ruin; 
yet they heedlessly rushed into destruc- 
tion. “;zx stands either for mazwx or 
“wax>. The spreading of the net refers 
to the taking of birds that are on the 
ground; the bringing down, to those 
that are in the air, by the use of missile 
weapons, Instead of the Hiphil p>"o"x, 
which occurs only here, the Soncin. edit. 
of the Prophets, and some few MSS. 

read pd7s in Piel, which may also be 
interpreted causatively. on1> seue, 
lit. according to the report to their assem= 

6 


bly, i. e. the public congregations, to 
which the Divine messages were delivered. 
God had given them sufficient warning 
by Moses and the prophets. ‘The versions 
vary in rendering the last word, which 
has given rise to the conjectural readings 
thas, oniyd, and pnszd. Aq, 
however, renders, kara aKons THs cuva- 
yoyins- 

13. That *4s is denunciative and not 
plaintive, the following “3 plainly shows. 
772 is often used of the flight of birds 
that wander from their nest, see Prov. 
xxvii. 8; Is. xvi. 2; Jer. iv. 25; and is 
here employed with reference to the silly 
dove, ver. 12. The redemption from 
Egypt, and that which, in numerous in- 
instances, they afterwards experienced, 
Jehovah adduces in aggravation of their 
guilt. Their preferring the service of 
idols to that of the true God, was not 
merely a practical denial of his all-suffi- 
ciency, but a violation of the solemn 
pledge which they had given of undi- 
vided obedience to his law, when, as 
stated, chap. vi. 1-3, they professed to 
return to him, 

14. When pressed down by the calam- 
ities which their sins had brought upon 
them, they cried to God for deliverance, 
but without any genuine repentance or 
sincere resolution to obey him in future. 
Drinssn—by, upon their beds, i. e. in the 
night-season, when their anxiety pre- 


42 


we 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. Vil. 


For the sake of corn and new wine they assemble ; 


They rebel against me. 


15 Though I instructed them, and strengthened their arms, 
Yet they devised evil against me, 
16 They may turn, but it is not to the Most High; 


They are like a deceitful bow; 


Their rulers shall fall by the sword, 


vented them from sleeping. Ansian, 
the LXX. reading 3"743n, render kare~ 
Téuvovro, they cut themselves, supposing 
that in token of grief, or like the mad- 
dened priests of Baal, 1 Kings xviii. 28, 
they inflicted wounds upon their bodies. 
This is also, in all probability, what the Syr, 
Vv 

watches, 
But though att4an is found in six 
MSS. has been in eight more originally, 
and is the reading of two early editions, 
one of which is the Soncin. of 1486, it 
is not sufficiently supported to warrant 
its adoption into the text. The Targ. 
Abul-walid, Jarchi, Abenezra, Kimchi, 
Munster, Piscator, Leo Juda, Junius, 
Tremellius, Boothroyd, Resenmiiller, 
Maurer, and Gesenius, support the text- 
ual reading, and render congregate. This 
decidedly agrees better with the follow- 
ing "2.27505. Instead of returning to 
Jehovah, the Israclites assembled before 
their idols to propitiate them by sacri- 
fices, in order to obtain a fruitful harvest. 
Lee renders, they become withdrawn, 
withdraw themselves, i. e. for idolatrous 
purposes. To mark more strongly the 
atrociousness of their apostasy, "2, ‘against 
me, ” is employed, instead »pya%2, of “from 

’ the preposition that otherwise fol- 
‘oie "30, which is frequently used of 
apostasy from God to idolatrous practices. 
The whole phrase is in this case best ren- 
dered by rebel against, as in our common 
version. 

15. -07 does not signify to bind, but 
to chastise or instruct. The LXX. in- 
stead of rendering the last words of the 
preceding verse, have émadetSnoay. Po- 


cocke’s Arab. MSS. wool Ls} 5: Those 


whose character is here described, had 
been instructed not only by words, but 


translator intended by 


also in a more severe manner, by the 
judgments which had been inflicted upon 
them; but that the former kind of in- 
strietion is meant, seems clear from the 
phrase y4ny Pin, to strengthen the arm, 
i.e. toimpart strength or power for the 
performance of any undertaking. Comp. 
Ezek. xxx, 24, 25, where both the im- 
partation and the deprivation of such 
power are mentioned. What the 3%, evil, 
or wickedness was, Which they cogitated, 
is not specified; but it most likely con- 
sisted in some new idolatrous alliance, 
such as that with Egypt, referred to in 
the next verse. LXX. movnpa; Targ. 
e732, evil cpeeasce 

16. be sb sane, “ convertunt se ad non- 
summum, i. e. ad abet: collect. non- 
deos, i. e. ad deos fictos, vanos.” Maurer, 
Thus also Gesen. in voc. $y. Comp. for 
the use of this idiom, Is. x. 15, note. 
Hosea, who is fond of brevity, uses here 
and chap. xi. 7, $2, instead of the longer 
form 34*by, Most High. Kametz is used 
instead of Pattach, on account of the 


accent. Arab. altus, excelsus fuit, 
to be high in dignity. GLa vtus, 
Pococke’s Arab. MS. in chap. xi. 7, 
ltt; Syr- Jou) God; one of 
De Rossi's MSS. ty. What the apos- 
tate Israelites worshipped, so far from 
being the Most High, was the direct 


opposite — wood or stone, the produce of 
the earth, The LXX. ameorpddnoav 


vy m 
eis ovSév, and Syr. at KS emsa.2| 
Sopho to the same effect, though giving 


the sense rather than an exact translation. 
The Latin translation of the Syr. nulla 
de causa, is quite erroneous. Most mod- 
erns, less aptly, take $y in its adverbial 


Cuapr. VIII. 


‘HOSEA. 


43 


On account of the insolence of their language: 
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. 


acceptation, and render, they return not 
upwards ; which yields, however, nearly 
the same meaning. Thus Rosenmiiller, 
Winer, Manger, Stuck, and others. New- 
come’s conjectural emendation, 5-34" x, 
that which cannot profit, has not been 
approved ; while the translation of Dathe, 
Penitentiam agunt, sed non sinceram, 
though approved by Kuinoel, Tingstadius, 
and others, is not borne out by Hebrew 
usage. 7905 Msif, some render a slack 
bow, supposing that its inutility, owing to 
the absence of elasticity, is what is in- 
tended; but false or deceitful better suits 
the connection, and Ps, lxxviii. 57 ; and 
the reference is to something faulty in 
the construction of the bow, which causes 
it to shoot or throw out the arrow wide 


of the mark. Root M124, Arab. Oy, 
jecit, projecit ; to throw, shoot, etc. “There 


seems no ground for the opinion of Ge- 
senius, that the phrase is used poetically 
for treacherous bowmen, who feign fight 
in order to deceive. The Israelites hypo- 
critically pretended to turn to Jehovah, 
but their actions took a different direction. 
Comp. mann id, a deceitful tongue, 
Ps. cxx. 2, 3. The insolence (Aq. and 
Symm. éuBpiunow,) of their language 
doubtless consisted in their proud boast 
of Egypt as a source of protection from 
the Assyrian invasion, which God was 
about to bring upon them. tax, their 
derision, i. e. the subject of derision to 
the Egyptians, to whom they should in 
vain apply for help. Comp. 2 Kings 
xvii. 4; Is. xxx. 1-7, though the latter 
passage is immediately directed against 
a contemporaneous application on the 
part of the Jews, 





CHAPTER VIII. 


The prophet announces the sudden irruption of the Assyrians, 1; by whom the Israelites 
were to be punished, on account of their hypocrisy and apostasy, 2, 3; their illegitimate 
government, and their idolatry,4. He then exposes the folly of their idolatrous confi- 
dence, and predicts their captivity, 5-10; remonstrates with them for their devotion to 
the worship of idols, in opposition to the express and numercus prohibitions of the evil 
contained in the divine law, 11, 12; and insists that their pretended service of Jehovah, 
while in reality they forgot him, so far from being of any avail to them, would only bring 


destruction upon them, 18, 14. 





1 Put the trumpet to thy mouth; 


“Tike an eagle against the house of Jehovah;” 


1. It is not unusual for the prophets 
without naming the invading foe, to 
announce his approach. See Is. xiii. 2. 
The words -Bv Jon—>s, to thy palate 
the trumpet! are singularly abrupt, and 


indicate the suddenness of the threatened 
invasion. ‘4h, palate, is here, as Job 
xxxi. 30, Prov. viii. 7, put for the mouth. 
Comp. chap. v. 8. The LXX. (eis nda- 
mov avtay, ws yj) appear to have read 


4 


HOSEA. 


VIL 


Cuap. 


For they have transgressed my covenant, 
They have rebelled against my law. 

2 They may cry to me: “O my God; 
We— Israel — acknowledge thee.” 

3 Israel hath rejected what is good; 


The enemy shall pursue him, 


4 They made kings, but it was not from me; 


“Ey> orn dx, which makes no sense, 
The following words mam ma-d9 1522, 
which contain the announcement, are 
equally abrupt. The point of compari- 
son is the rapidity of flight for which the 
eagle is celebrated, and which is fre- 
quently employed to denote the speedy 
approach of an enemy. Comp. Deut. 
xxviii. 49; Jer. iv. 13, xlviii. 40; Lam. 
iv. 19. nim na, the house of Jehovah, 
cannot here mean the temple at Jerusa- 
lem, which is otherwise so designated, 
since the threatenings are specially de- 
nounced against the kingdom of the ten 
tribes. It must, therefore, be taken to 
denote the people of Israel, the whole 
nation viewed as the family or church of 
God. Comp. chap. ix. 15; Numb, xii. 
7; Heb. iii. 2; just as the christian 
church is called the house of God. 1 Tim. 
iii, 15, and of Christ, Heb. iii. 6. For 
"APAl 1723, comp. chap. vi. 7. The 
nominative to 9239 they have trans- 
gressed, is min m3, the family, i.e. 
the members of the church, of IJchovah. 
The Israelites had violated the obligations 
of the theocracy. m3 and 774M are 
synonymous. 5 

2. apy isthe future used potentially 
and nae withirony. "7 bs,  O my God,” 
is construed as a distributive with the 
plural verb — each of the persons spoken 
of being regarded as using the language. 
Inattention to this has led the Syrian 


7.7 
uN O our God. 


banivy, Israel, is Ben ‘ania with 
323 21 we acknowledge thee, and not 
the nominative to PLT from which it is 
too far removed. It is entirely omitted 
in the LXX. Syr. and Arab. as it is in 
one of Kennicott’s MSS., and originally 
in one of De Rossi’s beni won SS O God 


o> eee 


translator to render, 


of Israel, the conjecture of Houbigant, is 
unnecessary. ‘The present position of the 
word is more in keeping with the style 
of Hosea, and the use of it well agrees 
with the vain confidence which the un- 
believing Israelites were ever prone to 
place in their relation to the patriarchs. 
3. M2 t Arab. 


y , corruptum fuit 
et foetuit, to be corrupt, loathsome, and to 
reject as such. ‘To treat as loathsome 
what was truly excellent, such as the 
worship of God and the practice of re- 


-ligion, argued an awfully depraved state 


of moral feeling. The use of by >, 
Israel, finely contrasts with that made 
of it in the preceding verse. 4, good, 
is, by Jerome, Abenezra, Kimchi, and 


others, taken for God himself, who is 


described as a"u%21 240, good and doing 
good, Ps. cxix. 68. Deum summum 
bonum, CEcolampadius. It seems, how- 
ever, to be used in a more general accep- 
tation. Before 3*4s there is an ellipsis 
of the illative ah. Forty-seven of De 
Rossi's MSS. and‘two more by correc- 
tion; eight of the most ancient, and 
sixty-two other editions; the Syr. Vulg. 
and Targ. read 45555 inatend of 555%, 
exhibited in the Textus Receptus. See 
De Rossi’s Scholia Critica. 

4, Some think the kings and princes 
here referred to were Shallum, Menahem, 
Pekahiah, Pekah, Hoshea, and such of 
their partisans as were invested with au- 
thority ; but from the allusions made in 
the following verses to the origination of 
image worship in Israel, it is more prob- 
able that the entire series of Israelitish 
kings and rulers isintended. Though in 
the providence of God, and agreeable to 
the declaration of Ahiah the prophet, 
the ten tribes revolted from the house of 
David, and set up a separate and inde- 





Cuap. VIII. 


HOSEA. 


45 


They set up princes, but I acknowledge them not: 
Of their silver and their gold they have made for themselves idols, 
In order that they may be cut off. 
5 Thy calf, O Samaria! is abominable ; 
Mine anger burneth against them: 
How long shall they be incapable of purity? 


6 For it came from Israel, 


pendent kingdom, yet they were actuated 
merely by rebellious motives, and had no 
regard to a divine sanction, 1 Kings xi. 
31-39, xii. 20. 915, signifies not only 
to know, but also to approve of that 
which is known, regard, allow, own. 
Job. ix. 21, xxxiv.4; Ps. i. 6, e¢ freq. 


LXX. kal odk eyvdpioay wo. Syr. lio 


adoro} and did not acquaint me, i.e. 


held no communications with me upon 
the subject. ‘The Heb. however, wiil not 
bear this interpretation. 4 in both cases 
before s+, has the force of a relative, 
which must either be adopted in transla- 
tion, or the personal pronoun must be 
supplied. For their conversion of their 
silver and gold into idols, comp. chap. 
ii. 8. 4x75 does not appear ever to 
be taken in a retrospective sense, and 
so to be referred to what goes before, but 
is always used with direct reference to 
what follows. m45> 43% is, therefore, 
to be rendered, in order that they may be 
cut off ; not so that they shall, etc. Comp. 
Jer. vii. 10, xliv. 8. In all such cases 
the preposition is employed to give pecu- 
liar emphasis to the subject. The Israel- 
ites could not seriously, or in reality, have 
intended their own destruction, but they 
acted as if they had; and it would as- 
suredly overtake them. The nominative 
to m3. 5° may either be Israel, understood ; 
or it may have respect to the people col- 
lectively. 

5. The calf of Samaria was not any 
set up in that city, but that set up at 
Bethel with another at Dan, or both, if 
we take the noun as a collective, which 
its inhabitants, and those of the country 
generally, worshipped. The metropolis 
appears to be used here by synecdoche for 
the whole land occupied by the ten tribes ; 


but, at the same time, there can be little 
doubt that its inhabitants were pre-emi- 
nent in their devotion to idolatry. ht, 
is used in its primary acceptation, to be 
loathsome, abominable. See on ver. 3. 
Such construction is preferable to that 
which would make 535 the accusative 
to nt, assuming +45 understood to be 
the nominative, or that in our common 
version, which makes it the nominative, 
and Samaria in its pronominal reference 
the accusative. The introduction of the 
worship of the golden calves by Jeroboam, 
in imitation of Apis, at Memphis, and 
Mnevis, at Heliopolis, which he must 
have seen during his residence in Egypt, 
paved the way for the imitation and 
adoption of the gross idolatries practised 
by the Pheenicians, Syrians, and Chal- 
deans. mint 58 mn, the anger of Je- 
hovah burneth, is an anthropopathic mode 
of expression of frequent occurrence in 
the Hebrew Scriptures, denoting the un- 
conquerable opposition of God to all moral 
evil, and the severity of the punishment 
with which it is visited. 2, against 
them, i. e. the Israelites who worshipped 
the golden calves, Ss xd SnD 
“40 p32, how long shall they be incapable of 
purity? i. e. how long shall they be ob- - 
stinately attached to the impure service 
of idols, and reject the means by which 
they might be recovered from its stain 
and punishment. 

6. ‘The golden calf had its origin in Israel: 
it was not made by any of the surround- 
ing idolaters. The 5 in 81771 is emphatic. 
mint pera, shall be or become flames, 
i, e. shall be burnt. pana is a Gat 
Aey. and has no root in Heb. ; but comp. 


the Arab _ 0, accendit ignems _phAsin 


ardor, flamma. As the calf was made 


by man, so it should by man be converted 


46 


The carpenter made it ; 
It is not God: 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. VIIL 


Surely the calf of Samaria shall become flames, 


7 Because they have sown wind, 
They shall reap the whirlwind. 
They shall have no stalk ; 


The growth shall produce no grain; 
Should it peradventure produce it, 


Strangers shall swallow it up. 
8 Israel is swallowed up; 


They are now among the nations, . 
Like a vessel in which is no delight. : 


9 For they went up to Assyria, 
Like a solitary wild ass: 


Ephraim hath given the hire of love. 


into fuel for the flames. It consisted, in 
all probability, of wood, thickly overlaid 
with gold. When taken as a present to 
the king of Assyria, (see chap. x. 6,) in- 
stead of being worshipped or held in 
respect, it would be stripped of the gold, 
and consigned to the flames. The LXX. 
followed by the Arab. Horsley, and New- 
combe, improperly wes "2 dyer, 


év T@ "lopana, dt 5 in Israel, 


and join the words to fs of the preced- 
ing verse. 

7. mnB:0 is the emphatic form of 
MEN, a “tornado, whirlwind. Leo Juda, 
magnum hinhinen, Comp. mnn"s, Exod. 
xv. 16; nnaw, Ps. iii. 3. The nomina- 
tive to 3b is $y4'w>, understood ; but it 
is best to take it collectively, i in harmony 
with the plural of the preceding verbs. 
Observe the paronomasia in “$2 mx 
maton ss. The Israelites should be 
cnpeabentel in all their undertakings ; 
and whatever partial gains they might 
acquire, would be eagerly seized by the 
Assyrians. 

8. What Hosea had just foretold is 
here realized in prophetic vision. He 
sees them in a state of exile — the objects 
of contempt to their oppressors. Comp. 
Jer. xxii. 28. 

9, 10. mb, to go up, is elsewhere used 
of foreigners coming to the land of Israel; 


but is here employed with singular pro- 
priety of the Israelites going to Assyria, 
to intimate their depressed condition, and 
their acknowledgment of the superiority 
of the Assyrian power. The reference is 
not to their going into captivity, but to 
the embassy which they sent for the pur- 
pose of obtaining aid from that quarter. 
saws stands for m4 38x, the 5 of direction 
being omitted. The point of comparison 
in the * wild ass” is his untractableness, 
and his disposition to take his own way, 
in consequence of which he forsakes the 
society of others, and loves the solitari- 
ness of the desert. See Job xxxix. 5-8. 
Thus it was with Israel. Despite of all 
the councils and warnings given them 
by the prophets, they persisted in enter- 
ing into foreign alliances. 2m, to give 
presents, hire, etc. is purposely chosen, to 
convey the idea of a violation of the 
marriage contract by unlawful commerce 
with another party—the derivatives 
i208 and m2ns, properly denoting a gift 
or reward given to a whore. See on 
chap. ii. 12. The aggravation of the 
evil is signified by representing the female 
as offering these rewards to her paramours 
to induce them to commit lewdness, in- 
stead of her being prevailed upon by 
presents made hy them. Comp. Ezek. 
xvi. 33, 34. Though in Hiphil, the 


~ -yerb has here the same signification as in 


Cuap. VIII. 


HOSEA. 


47 


10 Yet though they have hired among the nations, 


I will now gather them ; 


And they shall suffer in a little 


By reason of the tribute of the king of princes. 


11 


Kal. pears, lit. doves, a plural not in 
use in English. Jerome, who renders, 
numera dato amatoribus, either read 
tans which is found in one of De 
Rossi’s MSS., or he took t°27 8 in a 
concrete sense, as our translators appear 
to have done, for which there is no neces- 
sity. Instead of 52m> at the beginning 
of ver. 10, two of De Rossi’s MSS. the 
LXX. Syr. Vulg. Targ. and Arab. read 
aom-, as if from 72; according to which, 

the Israelites are represented as delivered 
over to, or placed in the power of the 
nations. The fifth Greek version, how- 
ever, has @AA& kal éray pucddonra %vn, 
which is preferable, as it is most likely 
that the prophet repeated the verb he had 
just used, and as the other rendering is 
less suited to the connection. Fnx, now, 
i. e. shortly. Comp. b2% immediately 
after. The suffix in pear S, “JT will 
collect them,” belongs to prin, the na- 
tions, and not to the nominative to 190%, 

or the Israelites. ‘yap is used in Picl in 
a bad as well as ina good sense. Comp. 

Ezek. xvi. 837. Thus Kimchi and Abar- 
banel. Instead of affording any assistance, 
the Assyrians would be collected against 
the apostate Israelites, invade their land, 
and carry them into captivity. Into that 
state of suffering, imposed upon them by 
the king of Assyria, they were shortly 
to be brought, as a punishment for their 
idolatrous desertion of the true worship 
of God. emm'y jb Sew ws Abe 
has been siicunhy interpreted. ‘Gesenius 
renders, ** and they (the hostile nations, ) 
shall presently set them free from the 
burden of the king, i. e. from his oppres- 
sive yoke;”’ but without any suitable sense 
— the whole passage being of a commin- 
atory nature, and not cereus of good. 

$mn, the Hiph. of $4n, has nowhere 
the signification of bésing or setting Sree. 

Nor is there any propriety in taking it in 
the usual sense of beginning, and so con- 


When Ephraim multiplied altars to sin, 


struing it with ty, as if the latter word 
were the infinitive of the verb 3%, to 
be diminished. "The ancient versions refer 
to b:n, as the root, in the sense of wait- 
ing, desisting from, ete. LXX. komd- 
Theod. d:a- 


gover. Symm. pevotow. 
Aehpovor. Syr. cual 2Ai Vulg. quies- 


cent. And in this reference I concur, 
especially as ten MSS. and forty-four 
editions, read 43; m3 without the Dagesh 
in the Lamed ; only I would abide by - the 
signification, to be in pain, affliction, 
which is that given to the verb in our 
common version. Such construction alone 
a ‘the connection. By some pw 

sb0o are considered to be an instance of 
asyndeton ; ; and twenty-one MSS. and 
originally ten more, the LXX. Aq. Syr. 
Vulg. Targ. and Talm. Babl. supply the 
copulative 4 before my. So Kimchi, 
Mercer, Piscator. Grotius, Houbigant, 
Dathe, Michaelis, Kuinoel, Newcome, 
Tingstadius. It has been doubted, how- 
ever, whether, according to this resolution 
of the word, they should be referred to 
the native king and princes, or to those of 
Assyria. Some, as Maurer, take them 
to be the nominative to.255°1, and make 
the sense end with stv, the burden or 
tribute, supposing the heavy taxes imposed 
by the Israelitish rulers to be intended. 
The best sense is brought out by reading 
tem 45% in construction, the hing of 
princes, and applying the phrase to the 
king of Assyria, who had many kings 
and princes subject to his sway. Comp. 
Is. x. 8. Thus Pococke’s Arabic MS., 
Leo Juda, Drusius, Jun. and Tremel., 
Piscator, Eichhorn, Boeckel, Goldwitzer, 
Hitzig, and Ewald. The wer, burden, 
was the tribute exacted by Menahem, 
and paid to Pul, amounting to a thousand 
talentsof silver, 2 Kings xv. 19-22. Comp. 
wera 5O2, tribute money, 2 Chron. xvii. 11. 

“LL. By multiplying altars, in opposi- 


48 HOSEA. 


Cuar. VIII. 


They became to him altars to sin, 
12 I may prescribe for him the numerous things of my law ; 
They are treated as a strange thing. 


13 As for my sacrificial offerings, 
They sacrifice flesh and eat it ; 


Jehovah accepteth them not: 


He will speedily remember their iniquity, 


And will punish their sin : 
They shall return to Egypt. 


tion to the express prohibition, Deut. xii. 
13, 14, the Ephraimites not only con- 
tracted great guilt, but paved the way 
for the introduction of other sins. Syr. 


Oe ° 0 vy 
125 Jona ad crimen ingens. 
There is an easy but beautiful variation 
in the repetition of the words. As used 
the second time, 8th possesses consider- 
able emphasis. Comp. for a similar in- 
stance of varied repetition, Is. xxvii, 5. 
It shows how much the mind of the 
prophet was affected by the wickedness 
of his people. Some suppose that there 
is a play upon the double meaning of 
NUT as signifying to sin, and to be pun- 
ished for sin, just as our Lord uses véxpor 
in two senses, Matt. viii. 22; but the 
second signification cannot atteehs to the 
verb in this connection. 

12. aims, Keri ansy, is continuative 


and potential, and is equivalent to, I have © 


prescribed, I still prescribe by my proph- 
ets, and I may go on prescribing ; ; it will 
be of no avail. Keri »s- in many MSS. 
24, the plural of 35, “which is properly 
the infinitive of 22", to be great, numer- 
ous, etc. Here the idea of number is 
evidently designed to express the abun- 
dant provisions God had made in his 
written law, and its enforcement by the 
prophets, against the commission of idol- 
atry. According to the Chethiv $54, 
we should render, “I may prescribe to 
him my laws by myriads ;” Ewald, by 
thousands ;”’ Hitzig, by ten thousands, 


Do > 0 


The Syr- 49 as0]9 iow. Targ. 


ris mad. Vulg. multiplices leges 
meas. Pococke’s Arab. MS. 8, ia 


“ *, Aq. mAnSvuuevovs véuovs. 


Symm. rajiSos véuor pov. Df h, statutes, 
are understood. avn niguiflen not only to 
think, regard, etc., but also to treat ina 
manner corresponding to the estimation 
in which a person or thing is held. ‘Tan- 


xa eens ) they reject them like a 


strange thing to which no regard is paid. 
13. ‘aman "nar, form the nominative 
absolute. ‘aman my gifts, or offerings, 
i. e. such as they professedly offer to me, 
The word is contracted for "227°, and 
is derived from 35%, to give. “it ‘seems 
preferable to abide by this usual signifi- 
cation of the verb, which it has likewise 
in Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic, than 
to follow Kimchi, who refers the noun 
to a root aman, to which he assigns the 
signification to burn, scorch, roast; or 
Ewald, who, appealing to the Chald. 
Sm and the Arab. _, and 
renders, raw offerings. "2747 is a more 
choice term for m4n3, or mas. For 
the reduplicate form, comp. yon "SHIN 
chap. iv. 18; which word the Bhs a 
Syr. and Targ. appear to have followed 
in this place; of which Hitzig seems to 
approve. Aq., observant of the gemina- 
tion, renders, Suatas pépe pépe SvoidCovew. 
Symm. Svetas émadahaAous. Theod. Svatay 
petadopay ésvotacav. Jehovah rejected 
the sacrifices that were offered, not ac- 
cording to his own appointment, but to 
gratify the carnal appetite of the wor- 


shippers. Reference is had to the sacri- , 


fices offered to him, as represented by 
the golden calf. In pz wx} is a meiosis» 


Cuap. IX. 


HOSEA. 


49 


14 Because Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and built temples, 
And Judah hath multiplied fortified cities ; 
Therefore will I send a fire into his cities; 
And it shall consume the palaces of each. 


my, now, is here used in the sense of 
speedily, shortly. From the references 
made chap. ix. 3, 6, xi. 11, it is clear 
that the last clause of the verse predicts 
the actual return of a number of the 
Israelites to Egypt, whither, in all prob- 
ability, they fled when the kingdom was 
broken up by the Assyrians. The threat- 
ening pointedly reminded them of the 
depressed condition in which their ances- 
tors had been in that country. Comp. 
Deut. xxviii. 68. The LXX. add, xa 
év ’Acovplos adapta ddyovra ; but the 
words are wanting in the Aldine edition, 
and in seven MSS. They have evidently 
found their way into the text from chap. 
ix. 3, where they stand in accordance 
with the reading of all the Heb. MSS. 
14. 4 in 72921 marks the protasis; in 


"mindws the apodosis. The niboor were 
doubtless idolatrous temples erected after 
the models of those in use among the 
Syrians and Pheenicians. See, for the 
word, my note on Is. vi. 1. Though 
idolatry had not made the same progress 
in Judah, the inhabitants nevertheless 
evinced a want of confidence in Jehovah 
by fortifying a number of cities, to which 
they trusted for defence. ‘The masculine 
suffix in 19:3 refers to Judah; the fem- 
inine in mona to each of ‘the cities, 
taken singly. Ewald strangely asserts, 
that the words of this verse appear to 
have been inserted from some book of 
Amos no longer in existence! Compare, 
however, for the latter distich, Jer. xlix. 
27; Amosi. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, iL 2, 5; 
and see note on Amosi. 4. | 





CHAPTER IX. 


The prophet checks the propensity of the Israelites to indulge in excessive joy on account of 
any partial relief from their troubles, 1; predicts the failure of the crops, etc. in consequence 
of the Assyrian invasion, 2; their removal to Egypt and Assyria, where they should have 
no opportunity, even if they were inclined, to serve Jehovah according to their ancient 
ritual, 3-5; and the hopelessness of their returning to enjoy the property they had left be- 
hind, 6. He then announces the certain infliction of the divine judgments, and points 
out the true character of the false prophets, by whom the people had been led astray to 
their ruin, 7,8. Illustrative references are next made to the early history of the Hebrew 
nation, accompanied with appropriate comminations couched in varied forms, in order to 


render them more affecting, 9--17, 





1 Carry not thy joy, O, Israel! to exultation, like the nations, 


“1. da mbuy—hrawnbs, lit. rejoice not Vulg. read d3 bx, exult not; but con- 
to edultation. The LXX. Syr. Targ. and trary to the wsus loguendi, which requires 


7 


50 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. IX, 


For thou hast lewdly departed from thy God; 


Thou hast loved the hire, 
On all the corn floors. 


2 Neither the floor nor the vat shall nourish them; 
And the new wine shall fail therein. 

3 They shall not dwell in the land of Jehovah, | 
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, 
‘And in Assyria, they shall eat what is unclean. 


the verb following 5x to be in the future 
tense, as Secker properly observes. Some 
find in the comparison * like the nations,” 
an imitation of their idolatrous festivi- 
ties ; but the language is rather predictive 
of the joyless condition to which the Is- 
raelites were to be reduced. While those 
by whom they were surrounded and 
especially their Assyrian invaders, should 
indulgein unrestrained mirth, they should 
experience affliction and sorrow. There 
is most probably a reference to the joy 
occasioned by the league entered into 
with Pul, by which peace seemed to be 
secured. Their joy was to be of short 
duration, and therefore required to be 
moderate. Instead of tray y>, thirteen 
MSS., originally five more, one by cor- 
rection, and five editions, read b>22a2, 
‘‘among the nations,” of which Rosen- 
miiller, following Abarbanel, approves, 
The prophet adds the reason why they 
should have no cause for exultation — 
their abounding idolatries, by which they 
incurred the judgments of God. These 
idolatries they carried to such a pitch, 
that they erected shrines at their thresh- 
ing floors, in order to offer at them the 
oblations of their grain. The crops were 
considered to have been bestowed by the 
idols in compensation for the worship 
rendered to them, (see chap. ii. 5, 12, 13;) 
and are therefore spoken of as 4:nx, @ 
meretricious reward, 

2. For gm, in reference to the failure of 
the productions of the earth, see Hab. iii. 
17. The verb properly signifies ¢o lie, de- 
ceive, etc. ; figuratively, to fail. Twenty- 
six MSS., originally sixteen more, and 
perhaps two, three editions, with the 
support of the LXX. Syr. Targ. and 
Vulg. read p3, in them, i. e. them, the 
Israelites, instead of ma, in her, the re- 


ceived reading. It is, however, too plainly 
an emendation to entitle it to adoption. 
Nothing is more common than for our 
prophets to use first a plural, and then a 
singular suffix of the same subject: ac- 
cording to the rule laid down by Tan- 
chum, that when in a continued discourse 
a nation or people is spoken of, either in 
the feminine affix agreeing with 5, con- 
gregation, or the masculine agreeing with 
ty, people, may be used; as also, that 
the singular may be used of them, viewed 
as a body, and the plural, when they are 
regarded as consisting of distinct individ- 
uals. See in Pococke. At the same 
time it is better in a translation to render 
them alike, as in the ancient versions just 
quoted. 

3. Canaan was called mim vs the 
land of Jehovah, because he had appro- 
priated it for an inheritance to those whom 
he had chosen to be his peculiar people. 
It was his gift to Abraham and his pos- 
terity, to be enjoyed by them on condition 
of their fidelity in his service. For this 
end he attached to it his special blessing, 
Deut. xi. 10-12. Comp. Jer. ii. 7, xvi. 
18; Ezck, xxxvi. 20. The return to 
Egypt being here mentioned in connec- 
tion with an exile in Assyria, proves that 
it is to be taken literally, and that it is 
not designed to express a servitude similar 
to that of Egypt. See on chap. viii. 13. 
The fulfilment of this prediction in the 
history of the ten tribes, is nowhere 
mentioned in Scripture. No doubt the 
number that fled to Egypt was small, 
compared with the body of the nation 
carried into the Assyrian exile. By stu 
is meant prohibited food, meats pro- 
nounced unclean by the Mosaic law, 
Comp. Ezek. iv. 13. To such necessity 
should they be reduced as captives. 


Cuap. IX. 


HOSEA. 


ol 


4 They shall not pour out wine to Jehovah, 
Neither shall their sacrifices please him ; 
They shail be to them as the bread of mourners, 
All that eat thereof shall be unclean : 
For their bread shall be for themselves ; 
It shall not come unto the house of Jehovah. 
5 What will ye do on the day of assembly ? 
On the day of Jehovah’s festival ? 
6 For, behold! they go away from destruction, 
But Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them ; 
As for their coveted treasuries of money, nettles shall possess them: 


Thorns shall be in their tents. 


ie 403 is used of the pouring out of 
e for a libation, Gr. oréydew. Exod. 
xxx. 9. ay, properly to mix, mingle, 
came to signify, sweet, agreeable, pleasing, 
from the circumstance, that what was 
pleasant to the taste, often consisted of 
mixed ingredients. prix om>, dread, 
or food of sorrows, i. e. such as was eaten 
by mourners for the dead, and conse- 
quently regarded as unclean, on account 
of the contact in which they were sup- 
posed to come with the dead body. See 
Numb. xix. 14, 15, 22; Jer. xvi. 7, 8; 
Ezek. xxiv. 17; Hagg. ii. 12,13. In- 
stead of feasting upon the sacrifices as 
their fathers had been accustomed to do, 
when they slew them according to the 
law, which was always an occasion of 
joy, they should be placed in circum- 
stances in which no such sacrifices could 
be offered, and no such feasts enjoyed. 
Their food should all be common — 
twes, for their soul, or life, i. e. merely 
for its sustenance ; not fit to be presented 
to the Lord. Thus Schmidius, Grotius, 
and others. 

5. In captivity they would find it im- 
possible to observe their solemn feasts— 
a great aggravation of their punishment. 
Comp. chap. ii. 11. The exposition of 
Jarchi, Abenezra, Kimchi, Mercer, Uapito, 
and others, according to which, the day 
of punishment, represented under the 
idea of sacrifice, is meant, cannot be sus- 
tained. 

6. The prophet here specially describes 
those Israelites who should take alarm at 
the invasion of the country by the As- 


syrians, and flee for safety into Egypt. 
They imagined that their stay there would 
only be temporary ; but it is predicted 
that they should no more return to their 
possessions, and be buried in their fathers’ 
sepulchres, but should die in the land, 
and have their interment among the 
mummies of Egypt. For Memphis as 
the great necropolis of that country, see 
my note on Isaiah xix, 13. yap, to 
gather, is here used in reference to the 
removal of the soul at death, into the 
world of spirits, and is equivalent to 
FEN Numb. xx. 26, or the full phrases 
Sade hos, and amian—ds Hos3, Zo 
be gathered ‘to one’s people or fathers, 
which is always spoken of as something 
different from death and burial. Comp. 
Jer. vili. 2 ; Ezek. xxix. 5, in which latter 
passage Ox, and ar, are used as syn- 
onymes. According to the signification 
of the cognate Arab. verb. YEAS cepit, 
apprehendit manu rem, it conveys the 
idea of God’s taking away the soul. 


Hence the phrase Mf xrdas, mortuus 


est, literally, God took him; and UAas 
simply, mortuus est (ad Dei miscricordiam 
delatus). Freytag. When it is said that 
Egypt should gather and Memphis bury 
the Israelitish fugitives, the meaning is 
that they should be removed out of this 
world, and that their bodies should be 
buried there. The personification is em- 
ployed, as usual, for the sake of effect. 
an, desire, covetousness ; that which 
is the object of desire, what is covetable, 
coveted, from "aM, to desire, covct. As 


52 


HOSEA, 


Cuap. IX, 


7 The days of punishment are come, 
The days of retribution are come; 


Israel shall know it: 
The prophet is foolish, 


The man of the spirit is frantic, 


Because of the greatness of thy punishment, 
And because the provocation is great. 


the verb ey": has a plural suffix, this 
noun is here to be taken as a collective, 
and rendered in the plural. The idea of 
treasury is supplied by the connection. 
FS is used generally of money, as in most 
other places, when a1, gold, is not com- 
bined with it. Targ. jinto2 nvan ros, 
the house of their desirable money. Symm. 
Ta emiuuhuata Tod dpyvplov aitar. 
Others, less aptly, explain the words of 
houses, palaces, ete. adorned with silver. 
On leaving those treasures which they 
could not carry with them, the Israelites 
would naturally bury them in the earth, 
which accounts for the very significant 
phrase, ‘the nettles shall inherit them.” 
For the combination i%2"p or sine and 
min, comp. Is. xxxiv. 13. The whole 
verse is miserably translated by the LXX. 

- MILE, visitation, punishment. Comp. 
Is. x. 3;°1 Pet. ii. 12. syns, shall know 
experimentally. By the x>23 is obviously 
to be understood in this place, the false 
prophet or prophets by whom the people 
of the ten tribes were seduced from the 
right worship of Jehovah, who taught 
them to worship the golden calves, and 
otherwise encouraged them in their idol- 
atrous practices. Thus Pococke’s Arab. 


MS. § oS st nd |, he that pretends 
to prophesy; and Kimchi, “po 8725, 
lying prophets. With this, the phrase 
manos, the man of the spirit, is syn- 
onymous; one pretending to inspiration, 
or professing to deliver oracles under the 
influence of a divine efilatus. LXX. 


&vSpwros 6 mvevuaropdpos. Syr. 1: # 


’ 

o> an ° id 
luos oo PORES) the man that is 
clothed, or endued ‘with the spirit, only 
adding by way of explanation, but er- 


te age 
roneously,| ante lat? Of folly. Comp. 
ye 


Mic. ii, 11. pan 74 dow; 1 Cor. xiv. 87. 
ef tis doe? mpophrys elves ?) mvevparucds 5 
2 Pet. i. 21, id rvevparos aylov depdpevor; 
and see my Lectures on Divine Inspira- 
tion, p. 25, yawn insane, frantic ; Arab, 
Co, locutus fuit rhythmice, to speak 


in an impassioned manner, like an in- 
spired poet ; hence, from the violence of 
the gesticulations, tones. etc., to act like 
a madman, to be mad, insane. Comp. 
Jer, xxix. 26, where az wos and 
mum are synonymous. ‘lhe meaning 
is, that the pretenders to inspiration, by 
whose false predictions of uninterrupted 
prosperity the people had been deluded, 
should be convicted of folly, and reduced 
to a state of absolute frenzy by the inflic- 
tion of the divine judgments upon the 
nation. Hosea introduces this declaration 
respecting the Israelitish prophets paren- 
thetically, thereby giving force to his 
own prediction of impending calamity. 
The affix in 4242 refers to sy-w>, to 
whom the prophet turns in the way of 
direct address. 449 means here, not the 
crime, but its punishment. Comp. for 
this signification of the term, Is. y. 18, 
and my note there. In 25) subaud. 
“>, because. The adjective m3, is here 
placed before its substantive for the sake 
of emphasis. See on Is. liii. 11. From 
the use of mow in the sense of hating, 
evineing hostility, etc., there can be little 
doubt that the derivative myu'y%2, which 
occurs only in this and the following 
verse, has the signification of hostility, 
provoking conduct, provocation. That of 
snare or trap, which Gesenius assigns to 
it, is not borne out, even by the Syriac 


Sagi which signifies vinxit, compe- 
’ 

divit, but not to ensnare. Comp. the 

Arab. eUlaw, acies gladii; acutiores et 


Caap. IX. 


HOSEA. 


58 


8 Ephraim expecteth help from my God; 
The prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways: 
The cause of provocation in the house of his god. 
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, 


As in the days of Gibeah ; 


He will remember their iniquity, 


He will punish their sins. 
10 


I found Israel, like grapes in the desert ; 


Like the first early fruit of the fig tree, at its commencement, 


FServidiores hominum. LXX. pavia; Aq. 
éyxdonois; AAA %xoraois; all of which 
convey the idea of great excitement, and 
yield support to the interpretation I have 
given. ‘The idolatrous practices of the 
Israelites are meant, by which they pro- 
voked the righteous indignation of Jeho- 
vah. 

8. EPNES mB4s, are not in construction, 
and to be rendered as in most versions, 
“the watchman of Ephraim,”’ to justify 
which construction various modes of 
exegesis have been resorted to; among 
others that of Horsley, who would have 
the watchman to be Elijah. Nor can 
the rendering of Ewald be sustained, 
who gives the passage, Ein Spiher ist 
Ephr aim gegen mein Gott. “ Ephraim 
is a spy against my God.” When re 
signifies against, it follows verbs of more 
active import. £. schaut nach Weissa- 
gungen aus neben meinem Gott; “ Eph- 
raim looks for prophecies besides my 
God,” — the rendering of Hitzig, is 
equally objectionable. I quite agree with 
Gesenius and Lee, in assigning to mex 
in this place the signification of looking 
out, expecting, as in Ps. v. 4; Lam. iv. 
17, in Piel. Dy, with, is used clliptically 
for ry, from with, i.e. from. <A sim- 
ilar ellipsis undeniably occurs Job xxvii. 
13, bevy sd4 pin phn nt, this is 
the portion of the wicked man from (py, 
with,) God, as appears, not only from the 
synonymous phrase *1'3%, “FROM the 
Almighty,” in the corresponding hemi- 
stich, but from the actual use of 7a, from, 
in the parallel passage, chap. xx. 29. 
What the prophet asserts is, that the 
Ephraimites indulged in expectations of 
good from Jehovah, notwithstanding their 
dereliction of his worship in its pure and 


legitimate forms, and their adoption of 
the idolatrous practices of the heathen 
around them. In this they were encour- 
aged by the false prophets, who caught 
them by their ensnaring doctrines, as is 
declared immediately after. moni is 
here used in the same acceptation ‘as in 
the preceding verse, only there is a me- 
tonymy of the effect for the cause. ay 
waits ma, “the house of his god,” 
not nicant the temple or people of the 
true God, but the temple or temples in 
which the false worship was performed, 
which the prophets here reprobated were 
specially active in promoting. 

9. SNM apr, an instance of the 
constructio asyndcta. The former of the 
two verbs is to be rendered adverbially, 
For its use before infinitives, see on chap. 
v. 2. Mercer, “ Quam corruptissimi 
sunt.” 4snmy may either be taken in- 
transitively, or 72 OM by, or 
the like, must be supplied. So great was 
the depravity evinced by those whose 
conduct the prophet here describes, that 
it could only be paralleled by the atroc- 
ity of the inhabitants of Gibeah, specified 
Judges xix. 22-30. 

10. bene: , Israel, here means the 
ancestors of the Hebrew nation. It has 
been asked, *“* How could God be said to 
find the Hebrews in the wilderness, since 
he conducted them into it from Egypt?” 
To remove the difficulty, some very un- 
warrantably explain the wilderness of 
Egypt itself; but others connect p°2: = 
"27%, like grapes in the desert, and 
explain wsva_ of finding by experience, 
trial, etc. ‘Such they were, proved them- 
selves to be, in my judgment. And this 
seems to be the proper division and inter- 
pretation of the words . At the same 


54 


I regarded your fathers ; 
But they came to Baal-peor, 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. IX, 


And separated themselves to the object of shame; 
They became abominable, like the object of their ct 
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away, like a bird; 
There shall be no birth, no womb, no conception. 
12 Yea, though they should rear their children, 
I would take them away from among men; 
But woe to them! when I depart from them. 


time 427°3 VSD 88% Occurs in reference 
to the ae ‘subject, Deut. xxxii. 10, 
where the verb must be taken in the 
sense of reaching with sufficient aid. 


Comp. the Eth. [JJ Rr “i venit ; Arab. 


Lave, perduxit, tractavit, negotium ; and 
chap. xiii. 5; Jer, xxxi. 2. The point 
of comparison in the verse is the delight 
with which a traveller enjoys grapes found 
in a desert, in which they were unex- 
pected, and where they served most op- 
portunely to quench his thirst; or the 
early fig, which is accounted a great del- 
icacy in the East. When Jehovah entered 
into covenant with the people of Israel 
at Sinai, they were regarded by him with 
delight, being free from idolatry, and 
engaging to adhere to his service. Comp. 
chap. xi. 1; Jer. xxxi. 3. The scene, 
however, was soon changed. p27, illi, 
these very persons. At Baal-peor, they 
proved faithless, and indulged in the very 
atrocities of which their posterity were 
guilty in the days of the prophet. For 
the transactions referred to, see Numb. 
xxv. 1-5. Priapism, which Hosea justly 
characterizes as in the highest degree 
abominable, was the worship peculiarly 
acceptable to the god of Peor. See Cal- 
met and Winer in voc. — 33 signifies 
to separate one’s self from any ‘person or 
thing, and also, followed by 3, to separate 
or devote one’s self to some religious object. 
Hence the substantive “°T3, a Nazarite, 
“12 consecration. mya is the abstract 
for the concrete, and denotes the obscene 
or shameful idol which the Moabites 
worshipped. oxs7¥, lit. abominations, 
but used here adjectively, loathsome, 
abominable. ams is properly the sub- 
stantive, am — the points being changed 


on account of the suffix. Vulg. facti sunt 
abominabiles sicut ea, que dilexerunt. 


~The Hebrews became as abominable as 


the impure idol whose rites they cele- 
brated. Wipy sin Yap wasn, he that 
serveth an abomination, is himself an 
abomination. Kimchi’s MS. note in Po- 
cocke. 

11, 12. Ber, Ephraim, is of the 
nominative absolute, which gives promi- 
nence to the name, and its signification. 
As for Ephraim, (2215%, from 748, to 
be fruitful Gen. xli. 52,) such may "he 
his name, but, etc, “22, glory, is in 
contrast with mya, shame, in the preced- 
ing verse. ‘The lewd and idolatrous con- 
duct of the Israelites should meet with a 
fit retribution, Instead of having an 
increase of children, that might grow up 
and become the glory of the land, those 
who might now be accounted such should 
speedily be removed into Assyria, and 
there would be nothing but sterility to 
characterize the nation. The preposition 
‘2, prefixed to the three last substantives, 
is privative in signification. yu, womb, 
stands here for pregnancy, or for ‘the Fetus 
in the womb. The order of the words 
presents an instance of the gradatio in- 
versa. "18%, among men, as bain TS 
pon, thy mother shall be childless 
among women,” 1 Sam. xv. 33. Ewald 
and Hitzig translate »q:%3, when I look 
away from them, contending that we 
should read % instead of w; but no MS, 
is thus pointed, and the present punctu- 
ation is so far supported by the LXX, 
(j odpt pod, i.e “w2), Aq. Vulg. and 
Targ. Three MSS.'and one edit. have 
*=;02, to which "“sy2 is doubtless here 
equivalent. Many instances occur of 
the substitution of w for 5, and vice versds 


Cuap. IX. 


HOSEA. 


50 


13 I see Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place ; 
But Ephraim shall bring out his children to the murderer, 


14 


Give them, O Jehovah! — what wilt thou give? 


Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts. 
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal; 
Surely I have hated them there: 
On account of the wickedness of their deeds, 
I have driven them out of my house ; 


I will love them no more: 
All their princes are rebels. 


16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up; 


They shall produce no fruit : 


The meaning is, when I withdraw my 
protection from them ; no longer showing 
them any favor, but delivering them over 
to their enemies. For the abortive at- 
tempt of Lyra to prove a corruption of 
the passage by the Jews, and to palm 
upon the rendering of the LXX. 4 cdpt 
pod e& avray, the doctrine of the incar- 
nation of the Messiah, see Pococke. 

13, After S™ 5: supply *n*s4, from 
the following sx} Debt el “END. Though 
msn commonly governs the accusative, 
yet, in Ps. lxiv. 6, it is followed as here 
by the dative, without any difference of 
signification. LXX. eis Sfpay, reading, 
sax, instead of s4z. Ag. Symm. axpd- 
trouov ; Theod. mérpay; Arnoldi, and 
after him Hitzig, would derive 44s from 
the Arab. , as signifying the Palm ; 


but it only signifies the root of that tree, 
or describes it as small in size, an accep- 
tation which would ill suit the present 
connection. Ewald renders, Bild, image 
or likeness. ‘The point of comparison is 
the beautiful situation of Tyre. See 
Ezek. xxvii. 3, xxviii. 12,18. The no- 
tion of planting seems to have been sug- 
gested by the name of Ephraim. See on 
the preceding verse. The territory occu- 
pied by that tribe, and several of the 
other nine, was distinguished for its beauty 
and fertility; and the prosperity of its 
inhabitants, who traded extensively with 
the Pheenician ports, was only surpassed 
by Tyre herself. Yet the fruit of this 
lovely region was only to be produced in 
order to its being destroyed. The inhab- 


itants were to be slain in great numbers 
with the sword. ‘The 4 before the infin- 
itive in x»x‘nd, is future in signification, 
indicating what was about to be, or would 
be done. 

14. These words strongly mark the 
effect produced upon the mind of the 
prophet by the contemplation of the wick- 
edness of his people. In holy ardor of 
soul, he feels himself excited to impre- 
cate what he had predicted ver. 11. 
Some, less appropriately, render m1, not 
as an interrogative, but as signifying that 
which, i, e. give them whatever thou 
wilt. Barrenness was accounted a great 
misfortune among the Jews. 

15. For Gilgal, see on chap. iv. 16. 
Being one of the chief places of idolatrous 
worship, the wickedness of the nation 
might be said to be concentrated in it. 
When God is represented as hating the 
wicked, it must be understood in regard 
to the odiousness of their moral character. 
and his infliction of positive punishment 
upon them on account of it. Hitzig 
considers sz to be here used inchoa- 
tively. For the sense in which moa 
house, is to be taken, see on chap. viii. 1- 
Hatred and love are contrasted as here, 
Mal. i. 2, 3. In px»qnio ony is a 
paronomasia. ; : 

16. The figurative language here em- 
ployed is suggested by the meaning of 
the name Ephraim, as in verses, 11, 13. 
Viwst is in the future, while m>n and 
2" are in the preterite, to mark the 
state of unfruitfulness as following upon 


56 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. X. 


Yea, though they should beget children, 
T will kill the beloved of their womb. 


17 My God will abhor them, 


Because they have not listened to him: 
They shall be wanderers among the nations, 


the injury done to the tree. The resolu- 
tion of the figure in the latter half of the 
verse possesses much force. Most of the 
MSS. and some few editions read, with 
the Keri, $3 instead of "ba , which occurs, 
however, before a verb, Job xli.18. For 
De77gn%2, comp. on 79772, ver. 6. 


17. Though the pronominal affix in 
“ribs is omitted by the LXX. and Arab. 
and one of Kennicott’s MSS., it is, in 
such connection, more in the style of 
Hosea than opis. The dispersion of 
the ten tribes is here expressly predicted. 





CHAPTER X. 


In this chapter the prophet continues to charge the Israelites with idolatry, anarchy, and 
want of fidelity, 1--4. He expatiates with great variety on the judgments that were to 
come upon them in punishment for these crimes, 5-11; and then abruptly turns to them in 
a direct hortatory address, couched in metaphorical language, borrowed from the mode of 
representation which he had just employed, 12. The section concludes with an appeal to 
the experience which they had already had of the disastrous consequences of their wicked 


conduct, 





1 Israxt is a luxuriant vine 3 
He putteth forth his fruit ; 


According to the increase of his fruit, 


He increased altars ; 


According to the excellence of his land, 


They prepared goodly statues. 


1, The wickedness which manifested 
itself in idolatry, etc. is here traced to the 
abuse of the prosperity which God had 
conferred on the Israelites. Instead of 
spending the bounties of providence for 
the glory of God, they appropriated them 
to idolatrous uses, and that in proportion 
to the abundance of their bestowment. 


PRI» (3 multus fudit, feecundus fuit, 


multum pluviam demisit, florere ccepit 
planta, is here used to express the luxu- 
riance of the vine, and not, as in our 
common version and some others, its un- 
fruitfulness. Theidea of emptying, which 
the verb also has, derived from that of 
pouring out entirely or abundantly the 
contents of a vessel, does not suit the 
present connection. LXX. edxAnuaroioa, 


Cuap. X. 


HOSEA. 


57 


2 Their heart is divided, they shall now be punished: 
He will cut off their altars, he will destroy their statues. 
3 Surely now shall they say: We have no king; 


For we fear not Jehovah: 


As for the king then, what can he do for us? 


4 They utter empty speeches ; 


Swearing falsely, making covenants ; 
Therefore judgment blossoms like the poppy 


On the ridges of the field. 


or, as in other copies, eykAnuarovod. Aq. 
&vudpos. Symm. brouavodca. Vulg. fron- 
doso. Comp. Gen. xlix. 22; Ps, Ixxx. 
9-11; Ezek. xvii. 6. In every other 
instance 753 is construed as a feminine ; 
but here the masculine name ts4v*, 

Israel, required it to be taken as of that 
gender. 71%, to resemble, be equal to, 


sufficient ; in Piel, like the Eth. HOP, 
to bring to maturity, produce Fruit. %, 
in the phrase 45—m297, is pleonastic, as 
in $—7n, etc., but may here be rendered 
as possessive pronoun. 

r>n is here to be taken intransi- 
ant as in our common version, and 
refers, not to any difference of opinion 
among the Israelites respecting the claims 
of their numerous idols, but to their in- 
sincerity in the service of Jehovah, — 
professing to worship him, while they 
likewise addicted themselves to the 
worship of idols. Thus Tanchum : — 


I pgaly pgiiey mathe puis 
Syne WL 1 Sal, “their mind 


and their understanding, and their opin- 
ton “are divided, while they associate 
others with God.’ 'The acceptation to be 
smooth, which some propose, is to be re- 
jected, on the ground that, though the 
verb is used in this signification of the 
tongue, it nowhere is of the heart. For 
the meaning of pws, see on chap. v. 15. 
The nominative to xan, He, is pons, 


God, in ->s, chap. ix. 17. Jehovah is 


here said to do, what he would effect by 
_ means of the Assyrians. 4% is properly 


a sacrificial term, signifying to cut off 


he head of a victim, by striking it on the 
neck; hence, to drop as blood from the 


8 


place thus struck ; and ¢o drop generally. 
It is here, with much force, used metony- 
mically, in application to the destruction 
of the altars on which the animals were 
offered. Ewald renders, Er wird thre 
alttére enthaupten ; “he will decapitate 
their altars.’”’ For the distinction between 
minarae and minx, seeon chap. iii. 4. 
mAy, , now, in this and the followi ing verse, 
has the signification of soon, speedil Ye 

3. The language of desperation is here 
put into the mouth of the apostate Isracl- 
ites, at the time of the infliction of divine 
judgment. Their king, to whom they 
had naturally looked for protection, was 
removed; they had forfeited the favor of 
God, thio was now become their enemy ; 
and, therefore, it was vain to expect help 
from an earthly monarch. Some think 
the prophet refers to the time of anarchy 
during the interregnum, between the 
murder of Pekah and the accession of 
Hoshea. 

4. “SIT NST lit. to speak a word, or 
speech, i. e. what is merely such; empty, 
false pretences. Comp. the Lat. verba 
dare. 'The prophet begins with the finite 
form of the verb, and then, for the sake 
of more specific description, changes it 
for the infinitive. Comp. Is. lix. 13. 
For nits, as an absolute infinitive, in- 
stead of mix, comp. nina, Is. xxii. 13; 
rosin, chap. xlii. 20. m43 , covenant, 
is here used as a collective noun, and is 
to be rendered in the plural. Whether 
the false swearing and the entering into 
covenants refer to the conduct of the 
Israelites in regard to each other, or 
whether they respect their conduct in 
reference to foreign powers, has been dis- 
puted. The latter would seem to be the 
more probable, since it is the making of 


58 


5 For the calves of Beth-aven, 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. X, 


The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in fear; 
The people thereof shall mourn on account of it; 
The priests thereof shall leap about on account of it — 


On account of its glory, 


Because it hath departed from it. 
5 It shall itself also be carried to Assyria, 


A present to the hostile king: 
Ephraim shall take disgrace, 


And Israel shall blush for his own counsel, 


covenants and not the breaking of them, 
of which the prophet speaks as something 
criminal. He seems to have in his eye 
the historical circumstances narrated 2 
Kings xvii. 4." By vv. is meant the 
divine judgment which was to be inflicted 
upon the people of Israel. So Jarchi, 
mepibi pie “wesw. This he com- 
pares to the rapid and luxuriant growth 
of the poppy, which overruns the fields, 
and is destructive as a poison. Celsius, 
in his Hierobot. supports the common 
rendering hemlock, as the signification of 
wx; but that of poppy, proposed by 
Gesenius, is preferable, both to such con- 
struction of the term, and to that of 
colocynth advanced by Gidmann, or that of 
lolium or darnel suggested by Michaelis. 
The term is usually rendered potson in 
our common version; sometimes gall, 
LXX. &ypworts. dm rather signify 
the ridges between the furrows than the 
furrows themselves. See Pococke. 

5, 6. In these verses the object of idol- 
atrous worship is spoken of, now in the 
plural, and now in the singular number, 
which Hitzig accounts for on the ground, 
that though the Israelites might have 
multiplied golden calves, that set up by 
Jeroboam would still be held in peculiar 
honor. Four MSS. have nbyy, calf, in 
the singular, which is also the rendering 
of the LXX. Syr. and an anonymous 
Greek version in the Hexapla. This 
reading is very uncritically adopted by 
Kuinoel, Dathe, Newcome, and some 
other moderns. For Vs ms, Beth- 
aven, see on chap. iv. 15. 45 is a col- 
lective. The nominative to the pronom- 
inal affixes in 1"d>, ‘9, i725, ete. is 
the d:2, calf of Jeroboam, singled out 


from the rest.. 4% 9, ts people, those 
devoted to its worship. Comp. Numb. 

xxi. 29. O05 is only used in Hebrew 
to designate idolatrous priests, and occurs 
but twice besides, viz. 2 Kings xxiii. 53 
Zeph. i. 4; but in the Syriac lpdoos, 
kumro, signifies a priest of the true God. 
as well as one engaged in the service of 
idols. Gesenius derives the noun from 
"12>, to burn, be scorched, black, suppos- 
ing ‘the reference to be to the black dress 
of monks or ecclesiastics; but this seems 
too. modern to be entitled to adoption. 
The derivation of Iken, in his Dissert. de 
Cemarim, who refers the word to the 
Persic sacrum magorum ignicolarum 
cingulum, of which frequent mention is 
made in the Sadder of Zoroaster, is much 
more natural. Comp. the Chald. SOE 

“inp, a belt or girdle. Some think the 
Lat. camitlus, an inferior order of priests, 
who attended upon and assisted the fla- 
mens, is derived from this root. Ewald 
renders the word by Pfaffen, which is 
used of priests by way of contempt, in 
German. ‘Those who render nbea0, they 
rejoiced, which is the usual signification 
of the verb, supply zs before it; but 
the Vau conversive connects it so closely 
with tas , as to render such supplement 
inconsistent with the construction. Iti is, 
therefore, better to revert to the primary 
signification of 3, to move about, leap, 
dance, or the like, Comp. the Arab. 


Je circumivit. Such would be the 
excitement of the idolatrous priests at the 
capture of their God, that they would 


leap about in a state of desperation, like 
those of Baal, 1 — xviii. 26. The 


Cuap. X. 


HOSEA. 


59 


7 As for Samaria, her king is cut cff; 
He is like a chip upon the surface of the water. 

8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, are destroyed ; 
Thorns and thistles shall grow upon their altars: 
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; 


And to the hills, Fall upon us. 


9 Since the days of Gilead, thou hast sinned, O Israel! 


There they remain: 


Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gilead? 


glory of the idol consisted in its ciate, 
wealth, ete. 4nis 3 is emphatic: itself 
also, i. e. the idol or golden calf. For 
the meaning of 25", Jared, see on chap. 
v. 13. The worshippers of the golden 
calf would be ashamed of him, when 
they found that, instead of protecting 
them, he was himself carried into cap- 
tivity. That 222 is not to be changed 
into m2v2, and rendered in a sound sleep, 
as Horsley does, nor into 7292, in this 
year, with Michaelis, the parallelism suf- 
ficiently shows. 

7. For the sake of emphasis, 354'2'% is 
put absolutely. The whole phrase is 
equivalent to the king of Samaria, etc. 
That +7972 agrees with mst, and not 
with 44-72%, “the gender shows. FSP 
has nowhere the signification of foam or 
scum. It is derived from 52p, Arab. 


er Sv-5y Sregit, to cut, cut off, and signi- 

fies any chip or small fragment of wood. 

Comp. mExp, a fragment, Jocl i. 7. 

Arab. Cgn.a3 fractus aboris ramus, 

Ru0s LXX. ¢pi- 

Aavov. Syr. ik. FSestucam. 'The com- 
’ 


parison of the king to a small chip of 
wood, which cannot resist the force of the 
current, is very beautiful and forcible. 
Spuma, which is the rendering of the 
Targ. Jerome, Symm. Abulwalid, Tan- 
chum, and’ many moderns, is less apt, 
even if it could be philologically sus- 
tained. 

8, 328, Aven, is an abbreviation of the 
full ete VNTM 2, Beth-aven, or Bethel. 
rswn , the occasion of sin to Israel. See 
ver. 10. In the midst of the calamities 
that should come upon the people, death 


tenuitas arboris. 


would be preferable to life. 
vi. 15, 16. 

9. That reference is here made to the 
transactions recorded Jud. xix. xx., there 
can be no doubt. The prophet declares 
that as a nation his people had all along, 
from the period referred to, evinced a 
disposition to act in the same rebellious 
and unjust manner as the Gibeonites had 
done. Comp. chap. ix. 9. The words 
17723 ne, there they remain, continue, 
persist; graphically express the character 
of the inhabitants in his day. The Gib- 
eonites are still, what they have ever been, 
a wicked and abandoned people. They 
are here singled out as a fit specimen of the 
whole nation; and are called miby—":2, 
sons of wickedness, to mark the. enormity 
of their conduct. Instead of m1>2, the 
Brixian edition, thirty-nine MSS. origi- 
nally seventeen, and perhaps a few more, 
have mb1y , the common form, which is 
supposed to have been changed by a 
simple transposition of the letters. Albert 
Schultens, however, in his notes ad Harir. 
i. p. 15, justifies the present reading by 
deriving it from the Arab. Lie, modum. 


excessit, extulit se; and Michaelis, in his 
Suplem. by referring it to the Syriac, 


aad S| and the Eth. UNO ; jfidem 
Sefellit, perfidus fuit. Comp. 44 QU : 
VAG - Rex 
VAOT! transgressio equi et bont, 


scelus, perversitas. That the Targumist 
read the text as it now stands is clear 
from his rendering the word sp7>0, they y 
went up. 'The words mgasn pa wATsd 
mide -sa—by manda are somewhat 


Comp. Rev. 


tyrannus,  scelestus. 


60 HOSEA. 


10 My desire is to punish them; 


- 


Cuap. X. 


The nations shall be collected against them, 
When they are bound for their two iniquities. 

11 Ephraim is a well-trained heifer, loving to thresh; 
But I will pass on beside her fair neck ; 
I will place a rider on Ephraim : 


Judah shall plough, 


And Jacob shall break the clods. 


involved, but the meaning is obvious. 
Destruction should assuredly overtake the 
wicked Israelites. ©, the verbal suffix in 
pawn, is anticipative of m7159 "22. Nd 
stands for nd, the interrogatory ‘nega- 
tive. 

10. sna , the LXX. have read *ms3 5 
rendering it #AYe; Or, according to the 
Alexandrian MS. and the editions of 
Aldus and Breitinger, 7ASev. Of this 
Houbigant, Dimock, Newcome, Tings- 
tadius, and Boothroyd, approve, and adopt 
it as an emendation ; but contrary to all 
other authority, ancient or modern, and 
without necessity. 2 prefixed is the Beth 
Essentie, indicating the substantive char- 
acter of the affection. See my note on 
Is, xxvi. 4. mas, to bestrongly propense, 
desire greatly, expresses the irresistible 
inclination of infinite purity to punish 
sin. 75s is the future in Kal of 157, 


to chastise, punish, compensation having 


been made for the first radical », by in- 
serting Dagesh in the >. moos, the 
infinitive of sox, to bind, bind asa pris- 
oner or captive, which is the sense in 
which the word is here to be taken, 
Dna*y, has occasioned great variety of 
interpretation. Michaelis translates it 
plough-shares, attempting to derive it 
from the Arabic. Jarchi, Lively, and, 
among the moderns, Ewald, render eyes, 
‘‘ before their two eyes,’’ i. e. openly ; but 
the word is always written ©=2"» when 
applied to real eyes, and only nis 
when applied to fountains or artificial 
eyes. Some translate habitations; but 
most, furrows, which is the rendering 
adopted by Abenezra, Kimchi, Abulwalid, 
Tanchum, Munster, Vatablus, Zanchius, 
etc., after the Targum — some expound- 
ing the passage one way, and some 
another. The only satisfactory exegesis 


is that founded on the Keri, pn4p “my, 

Sor their two iniquities, i. e. the two golden 
calves which Jeroboam had erected, and 
which proved the source of all the evils 
which they had afterwards committed. 
They had many other idols, but these 
were the principal; and they are called 
iniquities by a metonymy of the cause 
for the effect. Comp. ver. 8, where 
maw, sin, is similarly applied. This 
reading is in the text of a great many 
MSS. and is expressed in all the ancient 
versions. 

11. The general meaning of this verse 
seems to be, that the Ephraimites had 
been accustomed in the plenitude of their 
power to crush and oppress others, espec- 
ially their brethren of the two tribes; 
but they were now themselves to be 
brought into subjection to the king of 
Assyria, by whom they should be placed 
in circumstances of great hardship in 
foreign countries. The metaphors are 
agricultural. For ts, ¢o tread or beat 
out the corn, partly by the feet of oxen, 
and partly by sledges with instruments 
adapted to the purpose, see on Is, xxviii. 
27,28. The > in »mank, is paragogic, 
as AI" and "Mot, Jer. xxii. 235 
"nIsv, chap. li. 13, though in these pas- 
sages it has been left unpointed by the 
Masoretes. See Ewald, § 406. The form 
is otherwise the participle rans. $3 "23 
signifies here to pass on beside one, as the 
driver does beside an ox in the yoke. 
Thus Jehovah would, in his providence, 
lead forth the Israelites, from the midst 
of their prosperity, to the toils and hards 
ships of captivity. Eres a"D78 lit. 
I will cause to ride Ephraim, meaning I 
will place a rider upon him — a conqueror, 
who shall lead him forth from his land, 
Thus Calvin, Zanchius, Lyra Tarnovius, 


* 


Cuap. X. 


12 
Reap according to piety ; 


HOSEA. 


61 


‘Sow to yourselves for righteousness : 


Break up for yourselves the fallow ground : 


For it is time to seek Jehovah, 


Till he come, and teach you righteousness. 
13 Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity ; 
Ye have eaten the fruit of falsehood: 
Because thou trustedst in thy way — 
In the multitude of thy mighty ones. 


Rosenmiiller, and Ewald. The judgments 
of God were not, however, to be confined 
to the northern kingdom: the southern 
should also be involved in them. In 
short, they should overtake the whole pos- 
terity of Jacob. The prediction was ful- 
filled during the two captivities. 45, in 
4> a2y2, is pleonastic. 

12. Continuing his agricultural meta- 
phors, the prophet here abruptly calls 
upon: the nation to reform its manners. 
to} is the Dat. commodi. > in np735 
points out the end or object to be obtained 
by sowing. Sow what will produce the 
fruits of Tighteousness. The second im- 
perative is here equivalent to the future : 
«‘ Sow, and ye shall reap;”’ or the sub- 
junctive, “Sow, so that ye may reap.” 
That som, piety or goodness, is to be 
referred, not to God, but to man, its being 
parallel with mp4s,7 ighteousness, man- 
ifestly proves. "To change rz into nyt, 
and join this word with "3 , preceding, 
as Newcome, following the LXX. and 
Arab., does, is unauthorized and inept. 
ThelIsraclites had long neglected Jehovah: 
it was now high time to return to his fear ; 
and though they might not meet with 
immediate tokens of his favor, they were 
to persevere in seeking him, in the assur- 
ance that he would be gracious to them. 
Such is the force of sy , until. This favor 
was to be manifested by his coming and 
communicating to them instruction re- 
specting the only righteousness which 
could avail the guilty at his bar. That 
the words 555 pix mji74 are not to be 
rendered he will grant you suitable rain, 
but, he will teach you righteousness, and 
that they contain a prophecy of the advent 
and prophetical office of the Messiah, has 
been maintained by Jerome, and many 


other interpreters. In support of the 
rendering, He will teach you reghteousness, 


may be adduced the Syr. | 2) ene 


> ay = 3 
C1.2oos?} — lamboo till he 
come and show to you his righteousness ; 


Pococke’s Arab. MS. e sy wy! s 
Srslt poder: 29, till he come and 


guide you to rigkteousness. The Targ. 
to the same effect, "moi “San 42 

Ji2=> FIDL, now he shail be revealed, and 
shall bring righteousness to you; Vulg. cum 
venerit qui docebit vos justitiam. Thus 
also Dathe, Hitzig, Winer, and others. 
Kimchi remarks, & rsx veatn ts 4 

SMS MATT ND" Si Instr ansan mss} 
ps, there are those (of the Rabbins) who 
expound, If ye seck the Lord, to know his 
law and his commandments, he will come 
and teach you righteousness. And Aben- 
ezra asserts the same,.in nearly the same 
words. Such construction of the passage 
seems, from the preceding use of "p7x, 
to be more apt, than to take pts abso- 
lutely for > mes}, in due eiboreon: ad- 
equately, fully, according to the claims or 
necessities of your condition. See on 
Joel ii. 23. 

13. Instead of following such a course 
as that to which they had just been ex- 
horted, the Israelites had pursued one 
directly opposite, and now reaped the 
disastrous consequences. ‘The same met- 
aphors are here continued. Yno—"s, 
Fruit of falsehood, seems rather to mean 
the effects of their false and hypocritical 
conduct in professing attachment to the 
true God, while they addicted themselves 
to the worship of other deities, than fal- 


62 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. X. 


14 Therefore a tumult shall arise among thy people, 
And all thy fortresses shall be destroyed, 
As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in the day of battle: 
When the mother was dashed in pieces with her children, 


lacious and disappointing results. Sec- 
ker would read 3273, in thy chariots, 
instead of J2772, in thy way, on the 
LXX. éy G&puact cov, which reading is 
found in Compl. Ald. Barb. Reg. Laud. 
Cyrill. Ital. Ambros. Arab. Slav. Hexap. 
Syr. and a Copt. MS.; and Kuinoel has 
actually adopted it into his Hebrew text. 
It is, however, unsupported by any Heb. 
MSS., or any of the ancient versions, and 
is justly to be rejected. Four MSS., 

originally two, the Syr. and Targ. read 
J S173, ™m thy ways. ‘The way of the 
Israelites was the wicked course of con- 
duct which they had adopted in opposi- 
tion to the will of God. Kimchi: 
Swan MwaNM MIn 4, the way of 
wickedness and bad religion. The Vat. 
copy of the LXX. has éy éuaprhuact cov. 
Comp. Is. lvii. 10; Jer. ii. 23. 

14. The prophet now denounces a 
severe threatening against his rebellious 
countrymen, foreshowing that they should 
be involved in all the horrors of war. 
DSP1, with x epenthetic, after the man- 


ner of the Arab. ls, or it may be 


regarded as merely a mater lectionis. 

Some few MSS. and some others in the 
margin, read pi. ‘Twenty-four MSS§,, 

one originally, me of the early editions, 
and all the ancient bhp read "1s m35 
thy people, instead of F-23, thy : peo- 
ples. For minor varieties i in the readings, 
see Kennicott and De Rossi. The nom- 
inative to "ya" is $=, taken as a collec- 
tive, comprehending the whole. That 
ya>3 2, Shalman, and SRaqS ma, Beth- 
Arbel, are proper names, is now univer- 
sally admitted. The best interpretation 
of them is that given by Tanchum: 


qaby lof, mee CSCLe assinty 

ws xf Dees pol 52s 

msxmeby sJ, tele rem 
Ten boss ipa 

2 ttt Lt Jp, Oe pul 


trou Seon egw! LS. “As for 


Shalman, it is a proper name, and is said 
to stand for Shaimanassar, king of As- 
syria, only it is abbreviated ; and perhaps 
Shaimanssar is compounded of two names, 
one of which is omitted because it was 
well known: and Aréel is the name of a 
city, and is said to be that which is called 
Arbel at the present day.”” The abbrevi- 
ation of proper names is not uncommon 
in Scripture, as im33D» Coniah, for 
y2cim, Jehoiachin, ete. It was this 
monarch that besieged Samaria for the 
space of three years, and took it in the 
ninth of Hoshea, B. c. 722, carrying the 
king and most of his subjects into eyile. 
2 Kings xvii. 1-6. To this interpreta- 
tion it has been objected that our prophet 
wrote before the time of Shalmaneser, 
and therefore could not speak of his des- 
troying Arbel as something that had 
already happened. It must, however, be 
recollected, that though Hosea prophesied 
before the time of that king, he contin- 
ued to deliver his predictions as far down 
as the time of his successor Sennacherib, 
and must, therefore, have been well ac- 
quainted with the previous Assyrian 
invasions. With respect to tya4x moa, 
or, as some MSS, read, tax, Beth-Ar- 
bel, commentators are divided in opinion, 
Some think that the Assyrian city Arbela, 
situated between the Lycus and the Tigris, 
celebrated for the victory obtained there 
by Alexander the Great over Darius, is 
meant; but it is far more probable that 
the prophet refers to the ’ApBjAa of 1 
Mace. ix. 2, which Josephus places near 
Sephoris in Galilee; Eusebius, in the 
plain of Esdraelon. Of the battle here 
mentioned, no account indeed is given 
either in sacred or profane history; but 
as the contemporaries of Hosea are sup- 
posed to have been acquainted with it, 
there is reason to believe that it took place 
on the invasion of the kingdom of Israel 
by the Assyrian army. The ancient 


! 
_ 


’ 
Caarp. XL 


HOSEA. 


63 


15 Thus shall he act towards you at Bethel, 
On account of your flagrant wickedness: 
In the morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off. 


versions of this clause of the verse are 
more or less at fault; but have afforded 
abundant scope for the exercise of emen- 
datorial criticism. See Newcome, who 
renders, Like the destruction of Zalmunna 
by the hand of Jerubbaal ; and supposes 
the reference to be to Jud. viii. % ty» here 
signifies with, in the sense of being super- 
added. See Gen. xxviii. 9. xxxi. 50. 
15. The nominative to mivy is Shalman 
in the preceding verse, or perhaps 37, 
Jehovah, understood, but not ty—ns, 
Bethel, as in our common version, since 
this does not so well agree with what fol- 
lows. The words contain a special pre- 
diction against Bethel, where the wick- 
edness of the Israelites had been most 
conspicuously exhibited. pane ron, 
lit. the wickedness of your wickedness, 
i, e, your excessive, or most flagrant wick- 
edness. A rare example of a noun put 
in construction with itself repeated in 
the singular, in order to form the super- 


lative degree. There is no necessity with 
Newcome, to resort to emendation. In- 
stead of sma, “in the morning,” fif- 
teen MSS., and perhaps one more, six 
originally, the Proph. of Soncin. 1486, 
the Venet. edit. of 1818, in the margin, 
and the Vulg. read snvz, ‘like the 
morning.” Were the following verb 
m721 to be taken in the sense of resem- 
bling, being like, etc., the latter reading 
might possess some claim on our atten- 
tion; but as the idea of being destroyed 
best comports with the connection, that 
of the Textus Receptus is preferable. 
The difference of reading has arisen from 
the similarity of the letters 2 and 5. 
The reference is to the suddenness with 
which Hoshea was to be seized by the 
king of Assyria, and an entire end put 
to the regal dignity. See 2 Kings xvii. 
4, The doing of anything early or soon 
is frequently expressed by its being done 
in the morning. 





CHAPTER XL 


To aggravate his representations of the guilt of the Israelites, the prophet adduces the divine 
benefits conferred upon them from the earliest period of their history, 1—4. He then 
threatens them with unavoidable punishment on account of their obstinacy, 5, 6; but, all 
of a sudden, introduces Jehovah, compassionating his rebellious children, and promising 
them a restoration from their captivity in foreign lands, 7—11. 





1 Wuen Israel was a child, I loved him, 
And called my son out of Egypt. 


1, That these words relate to the na- 
tion of Israel— being a description of 
what Jehoyah had done for it ages before 
the prophet wrote, and not a prophecy 


of any future event, is so evident, that. 


no person who impartially examines the 
preceding and following context, can for 
a moment call it in question. Nor but 
for their having been applied by the Evan- 
gelist Matthew (ch. ii. 15.) to our Lord’s 


64 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. XI. 


2 According as they called them, they went from their presence, 


They sacrificed unto Baals, 


And burned incense to graven images, 
3 Though I taught Ephraim to walk, 


Taking them by their arms, 


Yet they knew not that I healed them. 


return from Egypt, would it ever have 
been imagined that they had or could 
have had any other reference. It is only, 
therefore, with respect to such application 
that any difficulty can exist respecting 
their exegesis; and, in my judgment, 
there appears to be nothing in the N. T, 
application beyond the mere appropria- 
tion of the language of the prophet, for 
the purpose of giving to Jewish readers 
a more vivid impression of the strikingly 
analogous circumstances of the sojourn 
of our Saviour in Egypt, and his return 
from it, to those of the ancient Israelites. 
The Evangelist does not affirm, that the 
words as used by Hosea were a prophecy 
of Christ; he only adduces them, to 
show how aptly they described the his- 
torical event which he was narrating, 
just as he does Jer. xxxi. 15, in applica- 
tion to the murder of the infants at Beth- 
Iechem, and Ps. lxxviii. 2, in application 
to our Lord’s teaching in parables. ‘He 
must be a stranger to the Hebrew writers, 
that does not know, that nothing is more 
common among ¢hem than such accom- 
modations of the text upon all occasions. 
They abound in such applications; I may 
say their Midrashim do very much ex- 
ceedin them.”’ Kidder’s Demon. of the 
Messiah, Pt. II. p. 216.  Parodiarum 
in N. T. omnia sunt plena, e. g. Matt. 
li. 15 and 23, ubi ¢mpleta dicuntur Secrip- 
ture tum etiam, cum nulla historica aut 
typica est impletio, sed analogica tan- 
tum.” Hottinger in Primit. Heidelberg, 
p- 80. See Surenhusii. B:BAos xaradans, 
p- 838. Horne’s Introd. vol. ii. pp. 341, 
342. Robinson’s Greek Lex. in fa, C. 
2,d. Instead of *:25 , the LXX. appears 
to have read 4° 3355 ; but instead of rd 
téxva avtov, his ‘children, which is their 
reading, that of Aq. Symm. Theod. the 
Slavon. and Matthew, agree with the 
Hebrew text. The Hebrew people are 
also called the son of God in the same 


figurative sense, Exod. iv. 22, 28. The 
early period of their existence is frequently 
represented as their youth. See Is. liv. 
13; Jer. ii, 2, iti. 24, 25, xxii. 21; Hos. 
ii. 15. 

2. The use of the verb sip,» to call, 
in the preceding verse, suggested the idea 
of the subsequent messages which had 
been delivered to the Israelites by the 
prophets, to which Hosea now appeals, 
in order to contrast with the means which _ 
had been employed for their reformation, 
the obstinate character of their rebellion. 
Before xp. subaud. q% 35, to corres- 
pond to 45. Thus the [xe Kay’ Ge 
The nominative is the prophets, under- 
stood. ‘The very presence of the proph- 
ets being an annoyance to them, they 
withdrew from it, that, unmolested, they 
might indulge in idolatry. 

3. "mda5m, an instance of the Tiphit 
conjugation, equivalent to Hiphil in sig- 
nification, and, in all probability, formed 
by hardening the preformative = into nm, 
Indeed, one of De Rossi’s MSS. reads 

vba" There 
exist ‘only two other instances in the 
Hebrew Bible, viz. nannmn, Jer. xii. 5, 
and myhh0 » xxii. 15, if” re nissan, 
xxy. 34, ‘is not to be so taken. Compare 
the Shaphel Conjugation in Syriac, in 
which language this very verb occurs in 


the form a kai See Knés Chrest. 


Syr. p- 112. Itis a denominative from 
ban, the foot, and signifies to cause, or 
teach to use the feet, or walk. Syr. and 

Targ. Zea mat, I led, only the 


latter paraphrases, 972 n7>d FN SIN 
m3 WTR,» and I led, ete. by an 
angel sent from my presence. The use 
of the personal pronoun »>$s before the 
verb gives additional force to the lan- 
guage. h> in pnp is the infinitive used 
as a gerund, asin Ezek. xvii. 5. Both 


—T ae Nee ee ee ee 


<a 


Cuap. XI. 


4 I drew them with the bands of 
With the cords of love; 


HOSEA. 65 


man, 


I was also to them as those who lift up the yoke from their neck, 
I held out meat to them, I made them eat. 
5 They shall not return to the land of Egypt; 


Assyria shall be their king: 


Because they would not be converted. 
6 The sword shall be whirled in their cities, 
It shall destroy their barriers, and devour, 


Because of their devices. 


the suffixes p and 4 refer to Ephraim. 
See on chap. ix. 2. Four MSS. for 
snsat, “his arms,” read »ny44, “my 
arms,” which is also in another originally, 
and now in another, and in the Soncin. 
edition of 1486. It is also supported by 
the LXX. Syr. Vulg. Another MS. 
reads 5D 4957, but they are all correc- 
tions of the original, and are only to be 
tolerated in translation. ‘The metaphor 
taken from teaching children to walk is 
continued, as those who do so take hold 
of their arms to keep them from falling 
while they move their feet. It beauti- 
fully expresses the condescension of God 
to the circumstances of his people, and 
the kind care which he exercised over 
them. Comp. Deut. i. 31, xxxii. 11. 
His healing them, refers to his recovering 
them from the calamities which they had 
brought upon themselves by their sins. 

4, ess stan, the bands of man, are 
explained by the parallel phrase nin3 > 
mans, cords of love, i. e. humane, gentle, 
persuasive, methods, such as men gener- 
ally employ when they would induce to 
action. There seems tobe still a reference 
to the case of children, who, when taught 
to walk, are not only held by the arms 
but also by soft cords or leading-strings, 
are led about, or drawn in a gentle man- 
ner by those who have the care of them. 
The terms, however, naturally suggesting 
the idea of the ropes by which oxen are 
bound and led about, the metaphor is 
immediately changed into one borrowed 
from agricultural life. “31 $y a7" 725 
does not mean to remove the yoke ‘en- 
tirely, but to raise it from the neck and 
cheeks of the animal, so as to allow it 
freely to eat its food. This better suits 


9 


the following connection than the idea 
of taking the yoke off any place that 
may have been galled by it, in order to 
afford relief. The $3, yoke, not only 
included the piece of wood upon the neck, 
by which the animal was fastened to the 
pole, but also the whole of the harness 
about the head, which was connected 
with it. The yokes used in the East are 
very heavy, and press so much upon the 
animals, that they are unable to bend 
their necks. "$s x3. Ewald renders, 
und sanft gegen ihn, “and gently towards 
him,” etc.; but it is preferable to take 
mx as the apocopated future in Hiph. of 
mur, to stretch out, extend, reach any 
thing to another. The verse sets forth 
the kind relief afforded to the Hebrew 
nation in Egypt, and the provision with 
which they were miraculously supplied 
in the wilderness. 

5. av, to turn, return, which is used 
at the beginning of the-verse in its proper 
acceptation, is employed at the close 
metaphorically to express conversion to 
God. The Israelites seem to have been 
very generally inclined to migrate for a 
time to Egypt, in order to enjoy the pro- 
tection of its monarch; the prophet as- 
sures them that they should not carry 
their purpose into effect, but that they 
should be subject to the Assyrian rule, as 
a punishment for refusing to listen to the 
calls given them to repent and turn from 
their idolatries. 

6. Most of the Rabbins take 5: in 
the sense of resting, remaining ; but it 
seems preferable to adopt the signification 
to turn, be turned, or whirled about, asa 
sword when it is brandished or when it 
is employed in cutting down the enemy. 


66 


HOSEA. 


7 For my people are bent upon defection from me} 
Though they call them to the Most High, 
Yet none of them will exalt him. 
8 How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? 
How shall I deliver thee over, O Israel? 
How shall I make thee as Admah ? 
How shall I make thee as Zeboim? 


My heart is turned within me; 


All my feelings of compassion are kindled. 
9 I will not execute the fierceness of my anger 5 
I will no more destroy Ephraim ; 


Comp. the Arab. GLa conversa fuit 
res. V. se convertit ; versus mutatusque 
Suit. m7, barriers, Gesenius and Lee 
take metaphorically, as denoting chiefs 
or princes. 

7. cxsibm = pram, which one of De 
Rossi’s MSS: reads originally, the Pahul 
Part. of nbn, to hang, used here meta- 
phorically in the sense of bending, or 
beng propense to anything. The idea of 
doubt or suspense, which some attach to 
the word in this connection, ill agrees 
with the character of the Israelites as 
otherwise depicted in this book. mat 
is always used’ in a bad sense, defection 
apostasy, etc. Comp. chap. xiv. 5. The 
suffix in "may is to be taken passively ; 
defection which has me for its object, and 
cannot with any propriety be rendered 
as by Horsley, «my returning.” For 
Ls—tx, ad swmmum, see on chap. Vil. 
16; and for s8qp2, on ver. 2. After 
trstan, supply §nis, Aém, from by, the 
Supreme, preceding. Jehovah had been 
degraded by his being worshipped through 
the medium of images, and having idols 
associated with him; yet none of his 
apostate people were inclined to raise him 
from this degradation, by rejecting them 
and celebrating His praise, as the sole 
and glorious object of adoration. Po- 


cocke’s Arab. MS. dhol Bee eo 
aT awl pty 


not one of them that glorified the name 
of God. “nm. with a negative is to be 


, there was 


rendered not one; without it, all alto- 


gether, wholly, as in the following verse. 


8, 9. Now follows one of the most 
affecting instances of the infinite tender- 
ness of the divine compassion to be found 
in Scripture; the point of which is en- 
hanced by its being introduced immedi- 
ately after a description of the odious 
conduct of the Israelites. It is, as Bishop 
Lowth characterizes it, exquisitely pa- 
thetic. The repetitions and synonymous 
features of the parallelism greatly add to 
the effect. The words belong to the 
period after the subjugation of Samaria, 
and the carrying away of the Israelites 
by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings xvii. 5, 6, xviii, 
9-12. They were designed to inspire 
the captives with hope in the mercy of 
God, and thus lead them to true repent- 
ance, ‘j22728, the LXX. render drep- 
acme cov; Aq. Straw kuxddoa ce; Vulg. 
protegam te; deriving the idea from the 
signification of the substantive 43%, @ 
shield; but it is used of delivering over 
enemies, Gen. xiv. 20. Symm. éxdécw 
ce. Before y72"we is an ellipsis of 9-8» 
which had already been twice repeated. 
The destruction of Admah and Zeboim 
is only referred to as an example in one 
other case, viz. Deut. xxix. 23, and then 
in connection with Sodom and Gomorrah. 
To the awful catastrophe recorded Gen. 
xix. the sacred writers frequently appeal. 
in order to produce a sense of the evil of 
sin, and the severity with which it de- 
serves to be punished; or when they 
would convey the idea of complete and 
irretrievable ruin. Comp. Is. i. 9, xiii. 
19; Jer. xlix. 18; Lam. iv. GF Amos. 
iv. 11; Matt. x. 15; 2 Pet. ii. 6; Jude 
7, Some would render 2d ">> SEM» 








Cuap. XI. 


For I am God and not man, 


HOSEA. 


67 


The Holy One in the midst of thee ; 


I will not come in wrath. 


10 They shall follow Jehovah, when he roareth like a lion ; 
When he roareth, the children shall hasten from the sea. 


. 


“my heart is turned against me,” i. e. 
my pity rises in overpowering opposition 
to the determination to which I had come 
to inflict punishments; but the phrase- 
ology will scarcely bear such construction, 
though it cannot be questioned, that it is 
designed to express a powerful inward 
revolution. Comp. %>9 “amn-n, Ps. 
xlii. 6, 12, xliii. 5; aha ty Meuron, 
exlii. 4; "99 535 by, Jer. viii. 18 ;' in 
all which passages the preposition con- 
veys the idea of mental contiguity, near- 
ness, in, within, as "29 P23 “ad FENZL, my 
heart is turned witHin me, Lam. ‘i. 20, 
incontestably shows. From the connec- 
tion in which it occurs, in the last cited 
passage, it is obvious the phrase is there 
designed to express great mental distress. 

“12> is used in Niphal, of the stirrings of 
natural affection, Gen. xliii. 30; 1 Kings 
iii. 26. The idea seems to be derived 
from the commotion produced by the 
kindling of a fire, and the heat or warmth 
in which it results. Tanchum explains 


the word by Lo concitatus Fuit. LXX. 


guvetapdxdn, Or, as in the Complut. 
dierapdxdyn. a2N2, the same in effect 
as Dam", compassion, feelings of tender 
pity and affection. Targ. "ani, my 
. compassions. It is derived from p73, ¢o 
be inwardly affected, whether with grief, 
pity, consolation, or anger. In the idea of 
displeasure with one’s self, has originated 
the signification, to repent, which accounts 
for the renderings, wetawércia, panitudo, 
repentings, etc. See my note on Is, i, 
24. The language is in the highest de- 
gree anthropopathical. The 9th verse 
contains a declaration of the purpose of 
God founded upon his compassion, and 
quite in keeping with the manner in 
which expression had just been given to 
it. a9 in nmgd saws Nd is, as fre- 
quently to be taken adverbially. The 
captivity was the last judgment that was 
to come upon the ten tribes as a pun- 


ishment for their idolatry. The render- 
ing, “I will not enter into the city,” 
affords no suitable sense, and would re- 
quire the article "y2 , as indeed, one of 
De Rossi’s MSS. reads. Bishop Lowth’s 
translation, ‘though I inhabit not thy 
cities,” (Lectures, vol. ii. p. 38.) is equally 
unsatisfactory with the interpretation of 
Jerome and Castalio: I am not like those 
who dwell in cities; living after human 
laws, and deeming cruelty to be justice. 
Such construction Maurer states to be 
in his opinion “artificiosior quam ele- 
gantior. I, therefore, adopt the interpre- 
tation hinted at by Jarchi, and since ap- 
proved by Schroeder, Secker, Dathe, Man- 
ger, Tingstadius, Eichhorn, De Wette, 
Noyes, Boothroyd, Gesenius, Maurer, and 
Ewald, which takes -"» not in the sense 
of city, but of anger or wrath ; compar- 


ing the Arab. le, JSerbuit estu dies. 


Comp. Jer. xv. 8; Hos. vii. 7; and -y, 
an enemy, 1 Sam. xxviii. 16 ; Ps, CXXxix, 
20. The words are thus strictly parallel, 
and synonymous to °x 851, and not 
man. ‘The derivation from , to 


which Michaelis assigns the signification 
angry. & . ira in Deo, Orient. Bib. 


Pt. XIX. p. 9, is less appropriate, though 
the sense which he gives is the same. 

10, 11. These verses contain gracious 
promises of the return of the Israelites to 
the true worship and service of God, and 
their restoration to their own land from 
the different places in which they had 
been scattered during the captivity. $n 
mim ans, to walk after Pion, is 
always used in the religious sense of ad- 
dicting one’s self to his worship, and keep- 
ing his commandments, and is not to be 
interpreted, as Hitzig does, of a mere fol- 
lowing of providence by taking advan- 
tage of the opportunity that would be 
afforded of returning from Babylon. So 
the Targ. "11 s2mdi8 “na, after the 


68 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. XII, 


11 They shall hasten, like a sparrow, from Egypt, 
And like a dove, from the land of Assyria: 
And I will cause them to dwell in their own houses, 


Saith Jehovah. 


worship of Jehovah. For the contrary, 
see ver. 2. As sy, ¢o roar, like the 
lion, always conveys the idea of terror or 
awe, it cannot be here applied either to 
any invitation to the Jews as a people, 
or to the preaching of the gospel gen- 
erally ; but must be referred to the awful 
judgments which God executed upon 
Babylon, Egypt, etc. through the instru- 
mentality of Cyrus and his successors ; 
thereby opening the way for the libera- 
tion of the Israelites who were found 
in these countries. Comp. Is. xxxi. 4; 
Jer. xxv. 30.; Joel iv. 16; Amos i. 2, iii. 
8. By e722, sons, or children, are meant 
the Israelites, who had been for a time 

rejected, but were again acknowledged 
in that character, because they were to 
be reinstated in the privileges of adoption. 
Comp. chap. i. 10. 51 is here preg- 
nant with meaning — signifying to come 
or hasten under the influence of great 
agitation. Theidea of trepidation, though 
implied, and connecting well with that 
of the roaring previously mentioned, is 
not so prominent as that of quick or nim- 
ble motion. Excited to the utmost by 
the revolutions of empires, which allowed 
them to take possession of their native 
country, they would use all haste in re- 
pairing thither. LXX. ékorhoovta; but 
in the following verse éxmwérecovta. Syr. 


er 
esol they shall move or be moved. 
XN ? 


‘Sic Lat. ¢repidare etiam sumitur pro- 
JSestinare, observantibus Bocharto in Hie- 
roz, et Schultensio in Animadverss. philol, 
ad. Is, xix. 17.”’ Winer, in voc. The 
same idea of velocity is further carried 
out by comparing the return of the Is- 
raelites to the flight of birds remarkable 
for their swiftness. “4x is here used 
not in its generic sense of bird, but spe- 
othealty of the sparrow, as the use of 
main, dove, immediately after, shows. 
The p>, sea, is the Mediterranean, or 
the islands and other maritime regions in 
the west. Kimchi, assy, the west; 


Pococke’s Arab. MS. I. > up 
\, Srom the isles of the sea. Comp. 


Is. xi. 11-16; a passage strictly parallel, 
only including the Jews as well as the 
Israelites. The three quarters of the 
globe here specified embrace all the coun- 
tries mentioned by Isaiah; and as the 
ten tribes form the subject of Hosea’s 
discourse, the present prophecy furnishes 
an additional proof of their return also, 
after the Babylonish captivity. To argue, 
therefore, from this passage, that they 
are still in existence, and are yet to be 
restored in their tribal capacity, is her- 
meneutically unwarranted. >» in the 
phrase em naz, instead of 2, seems 
to have special reference to the custom - 
of the Orientals, who enjoy their time 
upon, rather than zm their houses. 





CHAPTER XII. 


This chapter commences with renewed complaints against both Ephraim and Judah, more 
especially against the former, 1,2. The conduct of their progenitor Jacob is then adduced 
in order to excite them to apply, as he did, for the blessings which they required, 3, 4; to 
copy which they are further encouraged by the unchangeable character of Jehovah, 5, 6. 
The prophet next reverts to the deceitful and hypocritical character of the ten tribes, not- 
withstanding the numerous means that had been employed to promote true piety, 7—10; 
renews his castigation of their idolatrous practices, 11; again appeals to the kindness of 





ee ee eee NN ee 


Cuap. XII. 


HOSEA. 69 


God to the nation in its obscure origin in the person of Jacob, 12, 18; and denounces anew 
the judgments that were to be inflicted upon it, 14. 





1 Epnrarm hath encompassed me with falsehood, 
And the house of Israel with deceit ; 
And as for Judah, he is still inconstant with God, 


Even with the Holy Ones. 


1. The LXX. Vulg. Targ. and our 
common version join this verse to the 
preceding chapter ; but improperly—there 
being no connection whatever with the 
previous verses, whereas it is manifest 
from the renewed reference to Judah, 
ver. 3, that the three verses intimately 
cohere. ‘The proper exegesis of this verse 
depends upon the signification assigned 
to "4, and the consequent application 
of VaN3- That the former cannot gram- 
matically be referred either to 715 or 
m1", to subdue, bear rule, or to “12, t0 
Uobaond, as Jerome renders it, is now 
agreed on all hands; and there is no 
alternative left but to derive it from 435, 


which occurs only in three other passages, 


viz. one in Kal, Jer. ii. 31, and twice in 
Hiph. Gen. xxvii. 40, and Ps. lv. 3. In 
the two first, the ideas of becoming or 
being unfaithful, rebelling, wandering at 
large, are obviously conveyed. In the 
third, the verb is applied figuratively to 
an agitated or unsettled state of mind, to 
which the notion of wandering seems 
much more natural, than that of mourn- 
ing, which is that expressed by our trans- 
lators. Thus also the derivative 73599 
may best be rendered circumvagatio, 
erratio, Lam. i. 7, iii, 19. Compare the 


Arabic Oe, d , quesivit pabulum ; 
ultro citroque ivit ; mobile fuit; discurrit 
huc illue mulier apud vicinas suas. Qf 
locus, quo in pascuis cameli modo prode- 
unt modo retrocedunt. Eth. APP: 


Persequi, insurrexit, ete The significa- 
tion dominatur, which has been given to 
735, is altogether gratuitous. Themean- 
ing of the prophet will, therefore, be, that 
Judah or the inhabitants of the southern 


kingdom acted with vacillancy in regard: 


to Jehovah. So far were they from ad- 
hering steadfastly to his covenant, and 
seeking their happiness in obedience to his 
will, that they resembled animals that 
are dissatisfied with their pasture, break 
loose, and run wildly up and down in 
search of what is more agreeable to their 
appetite; or like a female who, discon- 
tent at home, seeks for satisfaction by 
gadding about among her neighbors. The 
description applies to the state of things 
among the Jews towards the end of the 
reign of Jotham, and during that of 
Ahaz, who introduced a Syrian altar, 
and other idolatrous objects, by which the 
people were tempted to infidelity towards 
Jehovah, but had not yet altogether re- 
nounced his service. Hence the force 
of sy, yet, still. Though the idea of 
hostility implied in the verb would not 
justify the use of the preposition, ty, with, 
taken as in the phrases ty tri$3, bya, 
to fight with, contend with ; yet it well 
agrees with its use after verbs of acting 
towards, or in reference to any one, such 
as CY msn, bY 350 my, etc. Thus 
Schroeder, Dathe, Eichhorn, De Wette, 
Boothroyd, Kuinoel, Gesenius, Noyes, 
Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald. Such con- 
struction of the passage is fully borne 
out by ver. 3, which cannot be consist- 
ently interpreted, if Judah were here 
represented as faithfully maintaining the 
principles of the theocracy. But if the 
signification which has been given tom 
be alone justifiable, then it is evident 
Wake », faithful cannot apply to Judah, but 
must be taken as qualifying p-vinp , the 
adjective noun immediately preceding. 
To this it cannot be objected, that the 
one is in the plural, while the other is in 
the singular ; for we find a precisely sim- 
ilar combination in p»ay Enhts, the 


70 HOSEA. 


2 Ephraim feedeth upon wind, 
He pursueth the east wind ; 


Cuar. XII, 


Every day he multiplieth falsehood and violence ; 
Yea, he maketh a covenant with Assyria, 


And oil is carried into Egypt. 


3 Jehovah hath also a controversy with Judah, 
And he will punish Jacob, according to his ways; 
According to his deeds, he will recompense him. 

4 Inthe womb he took his brother by the heel, 
And by his strength he strove with God; 


righteous God, Ps. vii. 10. That powinp, 
the Holy Ones, cannot here be applied 
either to human saints, or to angels, but 
must be interpreted of God himself, the 
law of-parallelism clearly requires. Comp. 
Josh xxiv. 19, sam Dowsp ponds ; Prov. 
ix. 10, n253 How mea; xxx. 8, mp4} 
318 Dep. Kimchi himself allows that 
piwinp must be so understood in this 
place. Between the inconstancy of the 
Jews, and the faithfulness of God, the 
contrast was placed in a very striking 
point of view. They had never known 
him to fail in giving effect to any of his 
promises; while they, on the contrary, 
had all along shown more or less of a 
fickle and roving disposition. The ancient 
versions exhibit considerable diversity of 
rendering in this place; but none of them 
suggests a meaning preferable to that 
just given, or warrants any alteration in 
the reading of the Hebrew. 

2. By “the wind,” and “the east 
wind,” are meant empty, unsatisfying 
and pernicious objects. Such were the 
idolatrous confidence and foreign alliances 
of the Israelites. mop, the LXX. ren- 


der xavowv, the Arab. \, the 


Samoom, or scorching wind, called the 
‘east wind,” because it blows from the 
desert to the east of Palestine. See on 
Is, xxvii. 8. In proportion to the insin- 
cerity and faithless conduct of the nation 
was the destruction which it brought 
upon itself. Such,conduct was specially 
exhibited in the leagues that were formed, 
and the friendships that were entered into 
with the two most powerful of the an- 
cient monarchies. 472%, o¢/, was one of 
the most valuable productions of Canaan, 


and formed a profitable article of export- 
ation. It is here spoken of as a present 
sent to the king of Egypt, doubtless 
among other costly articles, with a view 
to obtain a favorable hearing to the em- 
bassy which was despatched to secure 
his aid against the Assyrians. 

3. “Judah” and “Jacob” stand for 
the two kingdoms respectively, the latter 
name denoting the ten tribes, as Is. xvii. 4. 
The declaration here made manifestly 
shows, that in ver. 1 the conduct of Judah 
is to be viewed in an unfavorable light. 
At the same time the language of both 


verses in reference to that power is not 


so strong as that which is employed re- 
specting Israel. 

4, 5. Having introduced the name of 
Jacob in reference to his posterity, Hosea 
adverts to three interesting incidents in 
his personal history, with the view of 
encouraging his countrymen to apply 
themselves with all assiduity to the ser- 
vice of God, who alone could, and would 
extricate them from the calamitous cir- 
cumstances into which their sins had 
brought them. Though =p», from which 
the name >>, Jacod, is derived, Arab, 


ris, ¢ vestigio sequutus fuit, a calce 


venit, etc. signifies to come behind any 
one, take him by the heel, trip, circumvent, 


etc., it is obviously used here in a good - 


sense, to denote the supernatural indica- 
tion which his taking his brother Esau 
by the heel afforded of the superiority, 
which, in the course of divine providence, 
he and his posterity were to obtain. Gen. 
xxv. 22, 23,26. To this effect the Targ, 
“AdTT Ey THINS Nba wy apy2 gba 


on aN V3, was it not said of Jacob before 





_Caap. XII. 


HOSEA. 


71 


5 Yea, he strove with the Angel and prevailed ; 
He wept and made supplication to him ; 
He found him at Bethel, and there he spake with us; 


he was born, that he should be greater 
than his brother? ‘The Israelites were 
reminded of the promise, ‘‘‘The one peo- 
ple shall be greater than the other peo- 
ple;” and had they acted on the faith 
of it, they would have found that, with 
Jehovah on their side, they were not only 
stronger than the Edomites, but even than 
the Assyrian power itself. ‘The idea of 
power having thus been suggested to the 
mind of the prophet, he was reminded 
of the remarkable occurrence which took 
place at Peniel, when Jacob wrestled with 
the divine messenger of the covenant, 
and prevailed. mv, to put forth power, 
exercise rule as a prince, or commander, 
the verb from which ty", Israel, the 
other name of Jacob, is ‘derived, is that 
employed Gen. xxxii. 29, where the lan- 
guage is nearly identical with that used 
in these two verses. In the resumption 
of the subject, ver, 5. ny. is employed, 
which, though equivalent to m1 in sig- 
nification, must be referred to the root 
saw. Comp. Jud. ix. 22, and Hos. viii. 
4, 448 properly signifies manly vigor. 
Here yxbi2, the Angel, corresponds to 
orribe, "God, ver. 4, and designates the 
UncriaTep ANGEL, of whom we read 
so frequently in the Old Testament, to 
whom, as here, names distinctive of Deity 
are ascribed, and who is represented as 
possessing the divine attributes. See on 
Ts. lxiii. 9, and Dr. M‘Caul’s Observa- 
tions appended to his translation of Kim- 
chi on Zechariah, chap. i. x specially 
points to the Angel as the object towards 
whom the conflicting efforts of the pa- 
triarch were directed. Of the circum- 
stances of his weeping and making sup- 
plication, no particular mention is made 
in Genesis, but they may be regarded as 
implied in the words, “ I will not let thee 
go, except thou bless me.” The struggle 
was not merely corporeal, it was also 
mental. The outward conflict was only 
a sign of that which was internal and 
spiritual. The prophet, as in the former 
reference, leaves the Israelites to make 
the application. If they would only now 


redeem their character as descendants of 
Israel, and show that they were entitled 
to the name, by sincerely and earnestly 
engaging in supplication to the God of 
their ancestor, they too should prevail, 
and obtain every necessary blessing. ‘The 
third reference is to the narrative Gen. 
XxXvill. 11-22, which contains an account 
of the scene at Bethel, and the promises 
which God then made, not to the patri- 
arch only, but also to his posterity. The 
nominative to sx, he found, is God, 

and not Jacob; as yam Tanchum, 
and several others have attempted to 
maintain. The meaning is, that Jehovah 
afforded to the solitary traveller the gra- 
cious aid which his exposed situation ren- 
dered desirable. tx—n72, Bethel, is here 
the accusative of place, and is used with 
singular effect, in reference to the con- 
trasted appropriation of it by the patri- 
arch, and by his apostate posterity. The 
LXX. not perceiving this, have rendered 
it ofkos *Qy, the house of On, as elsewhere 
in this book. 45%, ‘wth us,” Aq. 
Symm. Theod. Syr. Tanchum, Abul- 
walid, and several moderns, render as if 
it were 4%», “with him;” but there is 
no variety of reading in the MSS., and 
33 is nowhere used of the third person 
singular. The LXX. have mpds aitots, 
to them, as if they had read t122, which 
so far as pronunciation is concerned, goes 
to confirm the Masoretic punctuation. 

That the prophet here speaks per cowdow, 
identifying himself and his contempora- 
ries with their progenitor, in whose loins 
they may be said to have been, when he 
received the gracious promises which re- 
lated not to himself only, but also to his 
posterity, is the interpretation advocated 
by Manger, Horsley, Hitzig, Maurer, and 
Rosenmiiller. Comp. Ps. lxvi. 6; Heb. 
vii. 9,10. On the other hand, Ewald, 
following Jarchi and Joseph Kimchi, ren- 
ders the words 33%29 12°77, he will speak 
with us, in the future, ia considers the 
prophet to be announcing, that God would 
renew his communications at Bethel, pro- 





(aeivERsin yy 


12 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. XIL 


6 Even Jehovah the God of hosts: 


Jehovah is his memorial. 


But though this seems less entitled to 
adoption, it cannot be denied that his 
design in the adduction of this instance 
was to lead his people to repentance, in 
order that they might inherit the prom- 
ised blessings. 

6. 1 infFin2 is expletive. Ewald 
strangely gives to the combination the 
form of an oath: “bei Jahve,” explain- 
ing it in his note, “wahr ist das bei 
Jahve,” By Jehovah it is true! The 
incommunicable name is here introduced 
for the express purpose of showing that 
He who had made promises respecting 
the posterity of Jacob, would not prove 
unfaithful to his word. While “ribs 

nixast, the God of hosts, LXX. Navyro. 
kpdrwp, conveys the idea of supreme and 
infinite power by which he is able to 
carry all his purposes into effect, his pe- 
culiarly distinctive name m+n", conveys 
that of immutable constancy, and, by 
implication, fidelity to his promises. Some 
aa the word to the root min, ¢o exist, 

e; but that it is to be derived from the 
eta and more ordinary verb of exist- 
ence 77, appears evident from Exod. 
iii. 14, where, in the explanation of the 
name, the form of the future is not pany, 
but ming. But as 1 is nevertheless 
inserted in m4n* which also retains », 
preformant of the third person singular, 
it is impossible not to acquiesce in the 
opinion, that the noun is made up of 
mn, He was, min, He is, and m7, 
He will be. What confirms this hypothe: 
sis, is the peculiar designation of God, 
Rey. i. 4, 8. ‘O dv Kad dé jv nal 6 epydue- 
vos, He that is, and that was, and that is 
to come, which is merely a translation 
into Greek of these different forms of the 
verb. See Pococke on Joel i. 19. In 
this derivation Abenezra and other Rab- 
bins concur; and, accordingly the second 
article of the Jewish creed concludes with 
the words min non wets ama NIM 
son, “And he alone is our God; Hz 
was, Hz 1s, and He suatt Bg.” Itis 
a coincidence in no small degree remark- 
able, that this threefold description of the 
divine existence obtained both among the 


ancient Egyptians and Brahmins. On 
the Saitic temple of Isis was the inscrip- 
tion, "Ey elu: wav 7d yeyovdy kal dy Kab 
écduevoy, kal Tov eudv wémAov ovdels Tw 
Svyntds avexddvie, “I am all THAT was, 
AND IS, AND SHALL BE, and no mortal 
hath ever uncovered my veil.”’ Plutarch 
de Iside. In the Bhagavat the Supreme 
Being thus addresses Brahma : — * Even 
I was at first, not any other being; THAT 
WHICH EXISTS unperceived; Supreme: 
afterwards I AM THAT WHICH IS; and 
He who Must REMAIN am I.” Asiat. 
Researches, vol. i. p. 245. Comp. Zebs jv" 
Zebs eoti* Zebs ’ooeta’ & pmeyddre Zev» 
‘Zeus was; Zeus is; Zeus shall be; O great 
Zeus!’’ Pausan. Phoc. x. 12. Whether 
the name 74° was in use before the time 
of Moses, te ‘been, and still is matter of 
dispute. That the patriarchs were un- 
acquainted with it, has been concluded 
from Exod. vi. 8, where God declares, 
that the name under which he revealed 
himself to them was “13 ts, Gop 
Atmicuty, but that he was not known 
to them by his name m4n1, JEHOVAH. 
Since, however, we mect with this name 
not only in the history of the patriarchs, 
but also expressly employed by them- 
selves, as in Gen. xv. 2, xvi. 2, xxii. 14, 
Xxiv. 3, xxvil. 7, xxiii, 20, 21, etc. it seems 
undeniable that they were acquainted with 
it; so that what is meant by the words 
rnb smo th9 ND mint ~aysa, is, that God 
had not caused them Zo experience the im-= 
port of his name min>, Jenoyan. For 
this signification of ‘the phrase pv} 375 

to know aname, or, to know, comp. Is. 
lii.. 6, lxiv. 13 Jer. xvi. Ql “It had 
special reference to something future — 
the fulfilment of the promises which he 
had given them; and as these promises 
began to be fulfilled when he interposed 
for their deliverance from Egypt, there 
was singular propriety in its being selected 

as the name by which Moses was to an- 
nounce him to his people, on opening his 
commission to them. ‘The same futurity 
of reference may be said to have contin- 
ued to attach to it all along till the advent 
of Messiah, in whom all the promises are 


~~ =. we * .)' 


_taystery of God. 


Cuap. XII. 


HOSEA. 73 


7 Thou, therefore, return to thy God; 


Observe mercy and judgment, 


And wait continually on thy God. 
8 As for Canaan, deceitful balances are in his hand; 


He loveth to oppress. 


9 Ephraim saith, Surely I am rich, 


I have acquired wealth ; 


In none of my labors am I chargeable with guilt. 


yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20; just as it is 
still prominently exhibited in‘O épxdpevos, 
THz comine One, of the Apocalypse, 
which obviously respects the revelation 
of the Lord from heaven to fulfil the 
Such interpretation 
alone goes to fully justify the emphatic 
statement — in the text of our prophet, 
Ast min >, compared with Exod. iii. 15, 
a5 “aah “51 mh, in which the Most 
High declares, that this name was to 
be employed for the purpose of perpetu- 
ating the knowledge of his character with 
respect to promised blessings. Comp. 
also Ps. exxxv. 13. That it should have 
come into oral disuse among the Jews, 
could only have originated in a feeling 
of superstitious veneration, which led 
them to regard it as too sacred to be pro- 
nounced without profanation. The ear- 
liest trace of such superstition is thought 
to be found in the words, Ecclesiasticus 
Xxiii. 9, dvopacle Tod aylov uh cvvediadijs, 
“use not thyself to the naming of the 
Holy One; ” but Philo de Nomin. mutat. 
makes express mention of it. "Whenever 
the Jews meet with it in the text, they 
read *3"8, Lorp, instead of it, except 
when it follows %2 258, in which case 
they point it min, and read D°77>8» 
Gop. Some are of opinion, that the 
present punctuation mim is merely that 
of »25y, the simple Sheva taking the 
place of Hateph-Patach, which only 
occurs in connection with gutturals ; but 
the employment of the two first syllables 
with precisely the same points in the 
formation of compound proper names 
manifestly goes to show that our present 
pronunciation is correct, Compare 934m 
min, ynsimt, etc. The changé of 
the Segol into Kametz may be accounted 
for on the ground of the grave manner 


10 


in which the fina} syNable required to be 
accented, if it was 0k intended to stand 
for the second vowel of the preterite 777. 

7. An exhortation to duty derived from 
what God had been, and would still, in 
accordance with the significant aspect of 
his name, in continuance be, to those who 
served him in sincerity. 

8. 4325, Canaan, is the nominative 
absolute, introduced abruptly for the pur- 
pose of graphically describing the real 
character of the Ephraimites. The word 
may, indeed, be rendered merchant, but 
then ws, man, must be supplied ; ON 
i222, aman of Canaan, meaning a mer- 
chant — the inhabitants of that country 
being the celebrated merchants of antiq- 
uity. The prophet seems rather to place 
the names of Canaan and Israel in an- 
tithesis ; in which there is great point, as 
the Israelites were accustomed to hold 
the Canaanites in the utmost contempt. 
Comp. Ezek. xvi. 3. - Horsley renders 
a trafficker of Canaan, which weakens 
rather than strengthens the antithesis. 
The fraudulent practices of merchants 
were quite proverbial among the Jews. 
* As anail sticketh fast in the joinings 
of the stones, so doth sin stick close be- 
tween buying and selling.” cclesiasti- 
cus xxvii. 2. 

9. The character assumed in the pre- 
ceding verse is here directly applied, only 
the ten tribes are represented as flattering 
themselves that they had employed no 
illegal means in acquiring their affluence. 
ws707, they shall find, is used imperson- 
ally. ;4¥ is employed to denote the act 
of distortion or iniquity, NoM its gudlt 
or culpability. 'The words literally ren- 
dered are, with respect to all my efforts, 
they shall not find attaching to me inig- 
uity which is sin; and the meaning is, 


74 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. XII, 


10 Yet I, Jehovah, am thy God from the land of Egypt; 
I will still cause thee to dwell in tents as on feast days. 


11 I have spoken to the prophets, 


. TL have multiplied visions ; 


And through the prophets I have used similitudes. 


might be punished. ‘The merchant 
imagines that it is not possible to get 
through business without some deceit ; 
but he takes care not to commit any gross 
or deadly act of delinquency, hoping that 
God will not be strict in regard to the 
rest.” — Michaelis. 

10. Commentators have been greatly 
divided in opinion as to whether these 
words are to be taken as a promise, or as 
athreatening. Those who take the latter 
view interpret the living in tabernacles 
of such a life as those lead who have no 
settled habitations, like the Israelites in 
- the wilderness, or like those who assem- 
bled at the annual festivals, and who 
could only be accommodated in tents 
without the city. But, though such ex- 
egesis might at first sight seem to suit 
the connection, yet there is something so 
forced in comparing a state of captivity 
to that of the Hebrew nation during the 
celebration of the most joyful of all their 
festivals, that I am compelled to regard 
the verse as containing a promise of what 
God would still do for the Israelites on 
their repentance and reformation. Those 
who are familiar with the sudden and 
abrupt transitions which abound in Hosea, 
and the frequency with which he inter- 
mingles promises with threatenings, will 
not be surprised at this unexpected assur- 
ance of the divine clemency. The argu- 
ment is this: the Israelites have indeed 
acted a most wicked and deceitful part, 
and justly deserve to be forever cast off 
from all participation in my favor ; but I 
am still, what I have been from the begin- 
ning of their history, their covenant-God, 
and will yet cause them to renew their 
joy before me. That they were not to 
enjoy any such privilege in their apostate 
condition is taken for granted. The 
promise was fulfilled on the return from 
the captivity. 

11. Jehovah adduces a further proof of 
the kindness of his disposition towards 
the nation—the abundant means of 


instruction which he had afforded them ; 
while at the same time, the language is 
so worded as to draw their attention to 
the messages which the prophcts had 
delivered. These messages contained the 
most powerful dissuasives from idolatry, 
and the greatest encouragements to 
cleave unto the Lord. $y in “M737 
pacain-ty, following a verb of an- 
nouncement, is equivalent to by, to, and 
is not to be pressed so as to make it sig- 
nify the coming down or resting of inspir- 
ation upon the prophets. Comp. Job 
xxxvi. 33. LXX. apds mpopfras. If 
Hosea was one of the earliest of the He- 
brew prophets, whose books are now in 
our hands, reference must here be had to 
those who had flourished before his time, 
such as Ahijah the Shilonite, Shemaiah, 
Iddo, Azariah, Hanani, Jehu, Jahaziel, 
Eliezer, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Joel, and 
Amoz, not to include the hundred proph- 
ets of the Lord whom Obadiah hid in a 
cave, after Jezebel had put a number to 
death. Not only had Jehovah made 
numerous communications of his will 
through the instrumentality of these 
messengers, but he had employed such 
modes in making these communications 
as were calculated at once to gain and 
secure attention. For 447n, see on Is. i, 
1. mets from ; mat, to be like, resemble ; 
in Pici, to liken, employ, similes, or com- 
parisons ; or, in general, to use figura- 
tive language. In such language, includ- 
ing metaphor, allegory, comparison, pros- 
opopceia, apostrophe, hyperbole, ete., the 
prophets abound. They accommodated 
themselves to the capacity and under- 
standing of their hearers by couching the 
high and important subjects of which 
they treated under the imagery of sensi- 
ble objects, and invested them with a 
degree of life and energy which could 
only be resisted by an obstinate determi- 
nation not to listen to religious instruc- 
tion. Though m%s7s is in the future, it 
borrows its temporal signification from 


Cuap. XII. 


12 Verily Gilead is iniquitous, 
Surely they are false : 
In Gilgal they sacrifice oxen ; 
Their altars are like the heaps 
On the ridges of the field. 

13 
Israel served for a wife ; 


HOSEA. 


Jacob fled to the country of Syria 


(65) 


? 


And for a wife he kept the flocks. 


14 


By a prophet Jehovah brought Israel up from Egypt, 


And by a prophet he was kept. 


the two preceding verbs, "M72" and 
*m27n, which are in the preterite. 
12. px is not used here as a particle 
expressing doubt : it rather expresses the 
certainty of what is affirmed, as ys fol- 
lowing, evidently shows. The two places 
here mentioned were celebrated in the 
history of the Hebrews : — Gilead, on 
account of the solemn agreement which 
Laban and Jacob entered into there with 
each other; and Gilgal, on account of 
the general circumcision of the people, 
and the solemn observance of the pass- 
over when they had passed over Jordan. 
‘They are adduced by the prophet to re- 
mind the Israelites of the sacred obliga- 
tions under which they lay, and the 
sacred character which, as the peculiar 
people of God, they ought ever to sustain. 
Pointing, as it were, to the heap of stones 
which Jacob had erected in testimony of 
the transaction between him and Laban, 
Hosea asks, Is Gilead the scene of iniq- 
uity? Are its inhabitants actually wor- 
shippers of idols? And then he fear- 
lessly charges them with idolatry. Both 
VS and x‘w are specially used of idols, 
in order to ‘express their nothingness and 
vanity. The abstract stands for the con- 
crete. By x5, Gilead, is meant not 
merely the place, but its inhabitants, 
Comp. for the wickedness of the Gilead- 
ites, chap. vi. 8. Sa¢3, Gilgal, had also 
become desecrated by idolatrous practices, 
chap. iv. 15, ix. 15, which abounded to 
such an extent, that the number of the 
altars was like that of the heaps of stones 
which have been collected and left in 
various parts of the ridges of a field. In 
h°>3, heaps, comp. Josh. vii. 26, there is 
an obvious reference to the name ada, 


Both are derived from $3, ¢o roll, roll 
stones, etc, For ny mada, comp. chap. 
x. 4. 

13, 14. The argument of both these 
verses is the same, though it is only in 
the latter that it is expressly stated, viz. 
the divine goodness in preserving Jacob 
and his posterity. God was with the 
patriarch, according to his promise, and 
protected and prospered him all the time 
he was in servitude in Padan-aram ; and 
he likewise delivered his descendants from 
Egyptian bondage, and conducted them 
safely to the land of Canaan. pox, 
Aramea, Syria, the high country, from 
tain, to be high ; here specially the region 
between the Euphrates and the Tigris, 
called on this account, e952 E13 Aram 
of the two rivers, EEX: Meoorotayla, 
Mesopotamia. Being lower than the 
rest of Syria on the west, it is here called 
mw, field, which corresponds to 438, a 
level or plain, Gen. xlviii. 7; hence 
Padan-aram. “12%, to keep, is used 
without 4x, sheep, in the sense of keep- 
ing a flock. See Gen. xxx. 31; 1 Sam. 
xvii. 20. To the verb as thus employed 
in its literal acceptation, ver. 13, the fig- 
urative use in "72'03 , ver. 14, corresponds, 
The church of God is frequently com- 
pared to a flock. The x-22, prophet, 
here referred to was Moses, who was so 
kar etoxnv. See Exod. iv. 15, 16; 
Numb. xii. 6-8; Is. Ixiii. 11, 12, The 
repeated reference to the Hebrew legisla- 
tor in this character, was evidently in- 
tended to impress the minds of the Israel- 
ites with a conviction of the necessity of 
attending to the messages which the Lord 
sent to them by his prophets. 


76 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. XTIL 


15 Ephraim hath given most bitter provocation, 
Therefore will his Lord leave his blood upon him ; 
And bring back upon him his reproach. 


15. E»anian, lit. bitterness, i. e. most 
bitter, or bitterly. ‘The object of provo- 
cation is not expressed, but that it is 
Jehovah is clear from the following clause. 
The blood of Ephraim was, in all prob- 
ability, that of human victims which had 
been shed in the service of Moloch. 1*353, 
his Lord, is improperly applied by Hors- 


ley to the king of Assyria. By sng nn, 


his reproach, is meant the disgraceful 
conduct of the ten tribes in abandoning the 
true God, as unworthy of their service, 
and transferring it toidols. 172 "3 is the 
nominative to wt" as well as to. 2°D25 
and in our language the corresponding 
term Lord requires to be used before the 
former, and understood before the latter 
of the two verbs, 





CHAPTER XIII 


After contrasting the prosperity of the tribe of Ephraim, during the period of its obedience 
to the divine laws, with the adversity which it had suffered in consequence of idolatry, 1, 
the prophet proceeds in the same manner, as in the preceding chapter, to intermingle 
brief descriptions of sin and guilt, 2,6, 9,12; denouncements of punishment, 3, 7, 8, 13, 


15, 16; and promises of mercy, 4, 9, 14. 





1 Wuen Ephraim spake, there was tremor 5 


He was exalted in Israel ; 


But he offended through Baal, and died, 


1. Ephraim means here the tribe prop- 
erly so called, in distinction from the 
other tribes of Israel, mentioned imme- 
diately after. Such was the power and 
influence which it originally exercised 
over the rest, that they showed it the 
utmost deference. mm ,a Gmat deyd- 
pevoy, but phonasly cognate with Dun, 


Jer. xlix. 24, Syr. fants, Targ. sn-rn, 


fear, trembling. In Pococke’s Arab. 
MS. the words are rendered (hic 


fan SdeyIl poll wihs 


ost os, when Ephraim spake, 
trembling fell upon men. And so Tan- 


chum, Slee yw wy! el 


xo IS Sal Wf y39, the mean~ 
ing is, that men revered him, and trem- 
bled at his word. ‘The same construction 
is adopted by Jerome, Kimchi, Abarbanel, 
Munster, Vatablus, Clarius, Drusius, 
Lively, Grotius, Rivetus, Tingstadius, 
Dathe, Kuinoel, Horsley, De Wette, 
Maurer, Noyes, and Hitzig. It is im- 
possible to approve the translation of 
Ewald: ‘Wie Efraim redete Empé- 
rung, es aufruhr machte in Israel,” 
When Ephraim gave utterance to sedi- 
tion, it produced rebellion in Israel. 
Neither rm nor xv2 admit of being so 
translated. To take mm adverbially, 
and render it tremblingly, or trembling, 
as in our common version, though it 
affords an apt sense in itself, is less suited 


Caap. XIII. 


2 And now they continue to sin, 


HOSEA. 


77 


And make for themselves molten images, 
Idols of their silver according to their skill; 
All of them the work of artificers ; 

The men that sacrifice, say of them, 


Let them kiss the calves. 


to the connection. sw3 occurs in the 
sense of elevating one’s self, Ps, lxxxix. 105 
Nah. i. 5, or wpe exalted. Hence NWI» 
a prince. 3 in +y33, has the force ‘of, 
in union with, in the matter of, and 
marks the participation of the Ephraim- 
ites in the service of Baal. mr, to die, 
is here to be taken in a civil or political 
sense; to lose one’s influence, become 
subject to misery, punishment, ete. It 
forms an antithesis to x'v3 , to be exalted. 
No sooner did the Ephraimites forsake 
the true God and take up with idols than 
he inflicted judgments upon them, by 
which their power was weakened, and at 
last became entirely extirict — “ex quo 
peccavit, nulla jam est autoritate in pop- 
ulo Dei.” Qécolampadius. “ Vita erum- 
nosa et tristis pro morte censetur ; idcirco 
exules mortui dicuntur, et exilium sep- 
ulchri nomine notatur, Ezech. cap. 37.” 
Rivetus. 

2. This verse sets forth their persever- 
ance in idolatrous practices, notwith- 
standing the chastisements with which 
they had been visited. tx ‘434, the 
LXX. Vulg. Jarchi, Abenezra, Abarba- 
nel, Panchen, Calvin, Piscator, Leo Juda, 
and among the moderns, Schmid, J. H. 
Michaelis, Horsley, Hitzig, Stuck, and J. 
Fr. Schroder, render sacrifice, or sacrifi- 
cers of men, on the principle, that the 
presentation of human sacrifices is meant. 
This, however, was called in question by 
Kimchi, who explains, f-xan tN 23 
nass, the men who come to sacrifice. To 
the same effect Munster, Piscator, J it 
and Tremelius, Rivetus, Mercer, Glassius, 
Lively, Drusius, Bochart, our own and 
most of the authorized versions, Lowth, 
Newcome, Boothroyd, Noyes, De Wette, 
Gesenius, Maurer, and Ewald. Therule 
of syntax laid down by Gesenius respect- 
ing this mode of construction, Lehrgeb. 
p. 678, is, that when a genitive following 
an adjective is a noun of multitude, or 
of the plural number, such adjective is 


particularly used in poetry for the pur- 
pose of designating those of the mul- 
titude to which the specified quality 
belongs. Instances are Isaiah xxix. 19, 
Drs "2iays, the poor of men, i. e. 
those of men who are poor; Micah 
v. 5, DAS "2702; the anointed of men, 
i. e. such of men as are anointed. So 
in the present case, Dis “F13ts sacri~ 
Jicers of men, i. e. those of, or among 
men that sacrifice, which is merely a 
periphrasis for priests. Although, there- 
fore, it is a fact, that the ten tribes did 
sacrifice their children to Moloch, 2 Kings 
xvii. 17, it would be more than precarious 
to draw any such inference from the pres- 
ent passage, especially as the prophet men- 
tions the calves, of whose worship human 
sacrifices, so far as we know, formed no 
part. ypy7 on baz, det them righ the calves. 
It was customary for idolaters to give 
the kiss of adoration to the objects of 
their worship. This was sometimes done 
by merely touching the lips with the 
hand, to which reference is made Job 
xxxi. 27. Comp. Lucian rep) Opyfoews 
i, p. 918, edit. Bened. Minutius Felix, 
cap. 2, ad jin. Apuleius Apol. p. 496. 
At other times the idol itself was kissed 
by the worshippers. Comp. 1 Kings xix. 
18. Thus Cicero tells us, that at Agri- 
gentum in Sicily there was a brazen 
image of the Tyrian Hercules whose 
mouth and chin were worn by the kisses 
of his worshippers — ‘‘ non solum id ven- 
erari, verum etiam osculart solebant.”’ 
Act. ii. in Verrem, lib. iv. cap. 43. Noth- 
ing is more common in the Russian 
churches than for the devotees to kiss the 
picture of the virgin, or of St. Nicholas. 
The construction of the words 5 tn 

saps) ebay bas cnt ovis is some- 
what difficult. “As usually divided they 
are interpreted thus: they, 7. e. the Eph- 
raimites, say of them, the images, let the 
sacrificers kiss the calves; but-it is better 
to take Has "M35, the sacrificers, as in 


78 


HOSEA. 


Cuarv. XIII. 


3 Therefore shall they be like the morning cloud, 
And like the dew which early departeth, 
Like chaff blown by a whirlwind from the threshing-floor, 
And like smoke from the window. 

4 Yet I, Jehovah, have been thy God from the land of Egypt, 
Thou knewest no God besides me ; 
Nor was there any Saviour besides me, 

5 I regarded thee in the wilderness, 


In the land of burning thirst. 


6 As they were fed, so were they satiated ; 
They were satiated, and their heart was lifted up; 


Therefore they forgat me: 


7 So that I became to them as a lion, 
I watched for them as a leopard by the way. 
8 I met them as a bear bereaved of her cubs, 


apposition with and exegetical of pn 
pn, they say, i. e. they, the men that 
sacrifice, say to the people, let them kiss 
the calves. While the priests presented 
the sacrifices, they encouraged the wor- 
shippers to come forward and kiss the 
objects of their adoration. 

3. Comp. chap. vi. 4. 45, the thresh- 
ing floor, being an open area, gencrally 
on an eminence, was peculiarly exposed 
to the wind, which carried off the chaff, 
on its being trodden out, or separated 
from the grain. M208, Aq. amd karap- 
pderov, which Jerome explains, “ foramen 
in pariete fabricatum per quod fumas 
egreditur;”’ Symm. éjjs, dr}, an orifice ; 
Theod. carovdéxnv, a hole for the passage 
of smoke. It is very common in the 
East for the light to be admitted, and the 
smoke to make its escape by the same 
passage or orifice in the wall. The idea 
of a speedy removal is that conveyed by 
all the images here employed. 

4. Comp. chap. xii. 10. The long 
addition in the LXX. is totally unsup- 
ported, and was most probably inserted 
in that version by some scholiast. 

5. Here my", I knew, contrasts with 
vm in the preceding verse, only it is to 
be taken in the sense of knowing effect- 
ively, taking notice of, caring for. Comp. 
Amos iii. 2, moixtn, lit. cherstiness, 
grent thirst, extreme drought, from as, 


Arab. wy, sitivit, Comp. 2715, to burn, 


Arab. , Ursit, sitivit, siti, arsit. 
Munster renders, ‘terra siti ardente.” 
Comp. Deut. viii. 15. 

6. unr, according to their feed- 
ing, i, e. in proportion to their enjoyment 
of the provision which I made for them, 
feeding them with manna from heaven, 
and afterwards abundantly supplying 
their wants. It is equivalent to, «as 
they were fed.” For the rest of the verse 
comp. Deut. xxxii. 13-15. 

7, 8. 1 in *ns1 is inferential, showing 
that what follows was the result of what 
is stated in the preceding verse. The 
context requires the verb to be taken in 
the past time. The images here employed 
are of frequent occurrence. Comp. Job 
x. 16; Ps. vii. 2; Is. xxxviii. 13; Lam. 
iii. 10. "122, the leopard, so called from 


his spots or streaks. Arab. . 4 , macul- 


osus fuit, maculis punctisve respersus 
Suit; pardus. See Jer. xiii. 23, FEI 
1"n5292n "3. The leopard is noted 
for his swiftness, ferocity, and especially’ 
his cruelty to man. He lurks in the 
dense thicket of the wood, and springs 
with great velocity on his victim. With 
respect to the bear, Jerome remarks, 
** Aiunt, qui, de bestiarum scripsere na- 
turis, inter omnes feras nihil esse ursa 
seevius, quum perdiderit catulos vel in- 
dignerit cibis.’ <> being of common 
gender, the participle $:>3 is put in the 


Cuap. XIII. 


HOSEA. 


79 


And rent the caul of their heart ; 
I devoured them there, as a lioness; 
The wild beast rent them in pieces. 


9 


O Israel! Thou hast destroyed thyself, 


Nevertheless in me truly is thine help. 


10 Where is thy king now ? 


That he may save thee in all thy cities; 
And thy judges, of whom thou saidst, 


Give me a king and princes, 


11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, 
And took him away in my wrath. 


masculine, though the female bear is 
meant. Comp. pba 32751ds, Ps. 
cxliv. 14. “4s0 is the’ pericardium, or 
membrane which contains the heart in 
its cavity, and is thus fitly called its 
enclosure. For atx, I watched, sixteen 
of De Rossi’s MSS. and one in the mar- 
gin, three ancient editions, and twenty- 
four others, the LXX. Syr. Vulg. and 
Arab. read “13x, Assyria, which some 
prefer, on account of the number of lions, 
panthers, tigers, etc. with which the re- 
gions of southern Asia abound. The 
text would then read, as a leopard, in 
the way to Assyria; but the common 
reading is more in accordance with the 
spirit of the passage. 

9. Ynnw,1 take to be a noun with 
the suflix, thy destruction! i. e. the de- 
struction is thine own; thou hast brought 
it upon thyself by thy sins. It is, there- 
fore, equivalent to ‘thou hast destroyed 
thyself,” and cannot be better rendered. 
Thus the Vulg. Perditio tua, Israel. 
Dathe, Ipsi estis o Israelite! exitii vestri 
causa. Some, however, as Kimchi, sup- 
ply davn, the calf; others, Fab, thy 
king, from the following veied ’ others, 
some other noun; and take mnw ta be 
the third person singular of Piel: Comp. 
for the form 053, Deut. xxxii. 35; 427, 
Jer. v. 13; "2%, Hos. i. 2; sep, Jer. 
xliv. 21. Newcome unwarrantably ‘adopts 
the rendering of the Syriac, «I have de- 
stroyed thee.” Most of the moderns 
give a hostile sense to the 3 in the fol- 
lowing F7172 73, against me, against 
thy help; ; but, ‘considering how frequently 
declarations of kindness are mixed up 


_ with charges of evil, and that some verb 


denoting rebellion would be required to 
support such construction, it seems pre- 
ferable to give to "> the common adver- 
sative signification of yet, nevertheless, 
and to regard the 3 in T2IZ32 as the Beth 
Essentie, which renders the phrase much 
more emphatic than the pronoun, or the 
substantive verb. would have done. It 
is equivalent to, In me is thy real help. 
Other sources may be applied to, and 
they may promise thee assistance; but 
from me alone efficient aid is to be ex- 
pected, and in me it is to be found. So 
our translators. See on Is. xxvi. 4. 
This exegesis is strongly supported, if not 
rendered absolutely necessary, by the 
pointed interrogations in the following 
verse. The LXX. ris BonSfoet; turn- 
ing »3 into "1, and omitting the second 
3 altogether. Thus also the Syr. 

10, 11. “my is in all probability a me- 
tathesis for n>, where? It is thus ren- 
dered by the "LXX, Syr. Vulg. Targ. 
Abulwalid, Tanchum, Luther, Drusius, 
Mercer, Osiander, Rivetus, Castalio, and 
by most modern expositors. It is also so 
taken by Gesenius, Lee, Winer, and 
Fiirst; and alone suits the connection. 
Comp. in support of this interpretation, 
the combination sity man, Jud. ix. 38 ; 
Job xvii. 15; Is. xix 12. One of Ken- 
nicott’s MSS. and perhaps capa one 
of De Rossi’s in the margin, read > 
instead of "my, though probably by cors 
rection. Another of De Rossi’s has a 
note in the margin, stating that the word 
is so explained. The 1 F2>74w4>4 is pleo- 
nastic, except it be regarded as introduc- 
ing the apodosis. mx is so intimately 
connected with the past transactions im~- 


80 


12 


HOSEA. 


Cuarp. XIIL 


The guilt of Ephraim is bound up, 


His punishment is laid up in store. 
13 The pangs of a woman in labor shall come upon him ; 


He is an unwise son, 


Otherwise he would not remain long 

In the place of the breaking forth of children. 
14 I will deliver them from the power of Sheol; 

I will redeem them from death: 


plied in "b—ran max, thou saidst, give 
me, that, though future in form, it can- 
not with any propriety be rendered oth- 
erwise than in the preterite. Some refer 
the circumstances here mentioned to the 
selection and removal of Saul; but it is 
more in keeping with the specialty of the 
prophet’s address to consider the king to 
be Jeroboam and his successors in the 
regal dignity ; and that the removal re- 
gards the frequent changes which took 
place in tHe history of the Israelitish 
kings, which proved a source of great 
calamity to the nation. See 2 Kings xv. 

12. The metaphors are here borrowed 
from the custom of tying up money in 
bags, and depositing it in some secret 
place, in order that it might be preserved. 
The certainty of punishment is the idea 
conveyed by them. Comp. for the former, 
Job xiv. 17; and for the latter Deut. 
xxxil. 34, Job xxi. 19, 

13. Another instance of two metaphors 
closely connected, the transition from the 
one to the other of which is, in the man- 
ner of the Orientals, rapid and unexpected, 
See Dathe’s very judicious note. It is 
not unusual in Scripture to compare the 
calamities of a people to the sorrows of 
childbirth. In addition to this the dan- 
ger and folly of Ephraim in protracting 
repentance, in the midst of the afflictive 
circumstances in which he was placed, is 
fitly compared to the extremely critical 
condition of a child on the point of being 
born, but, owing to the want of strength 
on the part of the mother, or other causes, 
is detained in its passage from the womb. 
The LXX. obros 6 vids cov 5 ppdvimos has 
doubtless originally been ofros 6 vids od 
gpévizos. > introduces the contrary of 
the preceding proposition, and is used 
elliptically for the sentence, “ For if it 


were not so,” ete. It may best be ren- 
dered into English by otherwise, else, or 
the like. ny, ¢ime, is here to be taken 
adverbially, in the sense of for a time, 
long, etc. Winer, aliquod tempus, ali- 


quamdiu. Comp. the Arab. Ww); when. 
used in opposition to wA$ 9, “avn, the 


os uteri. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 3; Is. 
Xxxvi. 3, lxvi. 9. Without a national 
madvyyeveoia, no prosperity could be ex- 
pected. It was for the Israelites by true 
repentance to accelerate and ensure their 
deliverance from threatened destruction, 
and their enjoyment of a new period of 
peace and happiness. 

14. Theideas of Sheol and Death were 
naturally suggested by the perilous cir- 
cumstances described in the preceding 
verse. Extinction as a people is there ap- 
prehended. Here it is viewed as having 
already taken piace; and a gracious prom- 
ise is given of the restoration of the Is- 
raelites, and the complete destruction of 
the enemies by whom they had been car- 
ried into captivity. 72%, from the hand; 
a common Hebraism for from the power, 
ms properly signifies to redeem, or buy 
loose, by the payment of a price; bya, 
to avenge the murder of a relative, and 
also to recover or redeem property by re- 
payment. Both verbs, however, are used 
in a more extended signification, and 
especially in reference to the deliverance 
of the Hebrews from Egypt, and from 
the captivity in Babylon. That bind, 
Sheol, and m+, Death, are here to 
taken in a figurative sense, with applica- 
tion to the state of the Israelites in the 
Assyrian and Babylonish captivity, de- 
prived as they were of all political exist- 
ence, and subject to the most grievous 


Cuap. XIII. 


HOSEA. 


81 


Where is thy destruction, O Death ? 
Where is thine excision, O Sheol? 
Repentance is hid from mine eyes. 


calamities, the exigency of the passage 
imperatively demands. Comp. Is. xxvi. 
19. Respecting *;3 interpreters are far 
from being agreed. Symm. the Vulg. 
Coverdale, Drusius, Tingstadius, Horsley, 
Dathe, Kuinoel, De Wette, Noyes, Ros- 
enmiiller, Hesselberg, and Maurer, take 
it to be the first person future of the sub- 
stantive verb >> "1, to be; whereas the 
LXX. Aq. the fifth edition, (Paul, 1 
Cor. xv. 55,) Syr. Arab. Abulwalid, 
Tanchum, Junius and Tremellius, Mer- 
cer, Newcome, Boothroyd, Ewald, and 
Hitzig, consider it to be used as in ver. 
10, for 52x mod, where? With the latter 
authorities I concur, partly on the ground 
that it is not likely the prophet would 
employ the same word in the same form 
in two different acceptations in verses 10 
and 14; and partly because I find »my 
heehee used absolutely as an apocopated 
future; but always with the Vau con- 
versive prefixed. See for the full form 
mms, chap. xiv. 6. To which add, that 
the interrogation is more in keeping with 
the animated style of the passage. In- 
stead of the plural 4-927, thy destruc- 
tions, one hundred and twenty- -two MSS. 
originally five more, now two, and four 
of the early editions read T2372, thy de- 
struction in the singular. “a1, Arab. 
20, death ; specially the plague, pesti- 


Suis the awful destruction of human 
life effected by it. Hence the LXX. 
mostly render it Sdvaros; here 5{kn, but 
in all probability originally vin, for which 
Paul reads vixos, only transposing viros 
and xévytpov, by which latter term the 
LXX. render 21), excision, cutting off, 
destruction. The cause of this transpo- 
sition is obvious. The apostle had just 
quoted the passage in Isaiah, agreeably 
to the version of Theodotion, in which 
vixos occurs, whereby he was reminded 
of the same words as occurring in Hosea, 
and, under the influence of strong emo- 
tion, he commences his quotation with 
vixos prominently in his mind, Olshau- 
sen thinks yixos is a later form for vf«n. 


11 


' ylos. 


Root aup, Arab. carbs, to cut, cut off, 


destroy. That 3% is the genuine read- 
ing, and that 7202 , a goad, which some 
would substitute for it, in order to make 
the Hebrew correspond to xéyrpoy, is to 
be rejected, may very conclusively be 
gathered from the similar occurrence of 
the words -23 and 2UR together, Ps. 
xci. 6. Comp. Deut, xxxii. 24. The 
import of this animated apostrophe, as 
used both by Jehovah in the prophet, and 
by the apostle, is, Where are now the 
effects of the destructive influence which 
you have exerted? Your victims are 
recovered from your dominion: they are 
alive again, and shall no more be subject 
to your power. The speakers place them- 
selves as it were in the period after the 
resurrection : the former in that after the 
restoration from Babylon; the other in 
that after the literal restoration of the 
dead to life at the last day. Both look 
back, and triumphantly exult over the 
conquerors. With respect to the appro- 
priation of the words by the apostle in 
reference to the doctrine of the final res- 
urrection, it appears to be made, not in 
the way of proof, but merely to give ex- 
pression, in the triumphant language of 
the prophet, to the animated feelings 
which had taken possession of his breast. 
His direct quotation in the way of argu- 
ment is made from Is. xxv. 8, and con- 
sists of the words karerd3n 6 Sdvatos eis 
It would, therefore, be improper 
to identify the subject of which he treats 
with that treated of by our prophet. 
«‘Neque enim ex professo semper locos 
adducunt apostoli, qui toto contextu ad 
institutum. quod tractant pertineant: sed 
interdum alludunt ad unum verbum 
duntaxat, aliquando aptant locum ad sen- 
tentiam per similitudinem, aliquando 
abhibent testimonia. — Atqui satis con- 
stat, Paulum illo 15 cap. 1 ad Corinth 
non citasse prophet testimoniam ad con- 
firmandum illam doctrinam de qua dis- 
serit.” Calvin in loc. See also Horsley’s 
critical note tris, LXX. mapdirnois, 


82 
15 


HOSEA. 


Though he be fruitful among his brethren, 
Yet an east wind, a wind of Jehovah, 
Shall come up from the desert, : 
And dry up his fountain ; 
And his spring shall become dry: 
He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 


Cuap. XIIL 


16 Samaria shall be punished, 


Because she hath rebelled against her God: 


They shall fall by the sword; 


Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, 
And their pregnant women shall be ripped up. 


Syr. flnco, Vulg. consolatio; but re- 


pentance better suits the connection. It 
expresses the immutability of the divine 
purpose, which had the deliverance of 
his people for its object. Comp. Rom. 
xi. 29. Horsley strangely refers the re- 
pentance to man, and not to God. 

15. This and the following verse set 
forth the devastation and destruction of 
the kingdom of the ten tribes, which was 
to precede the deliverance promised in 
that which precedes. “While the promise 
was designed to afford consolation to the 
pious, and encouragement to the penitent, 
the threatening was equally necessary for 
the refractory and profane. win, he, 
refers to Ephraim, ver. 12. x45" an 
drat dey. but obviously equivalent to 
mp2, the Hiphil of 48, ¢o be fruitful. 
It is here used with special reference to 
the name of p> 5x, being the root whence 

-it is derived, and not improbably exhibits 
& instead of , because it forms the first 
letter of the noun. The tribe of Eph- 
raim was the most numerous in regard to 

‘population, and was for a time in the 

_most flourishing circumstances. That 

such is the signification of the verb, and 
that it is not to be rendered divide or 
separate, as in the ancient and several of 
the modern versions, nor act like a wild 
ass, which others exhibit, appears from 
the mention of a spring and a fountain, 
which naturally suggests the idea of a 
tree, the roots of which are plentifully 
supplied by their water. For nop, see 
on chap. xii. 2, and Is. xxvii. 8. man 
nim, like pnts ws, Job. i, 19, is the 


genitive of cause, a wind caused, sent by 
or proceeding from Jehovah; not ‘a great 
wind,” as some interpret. The Assyrian 
army is meant. mow? xin, He, i. e 
the Assyrian, couched under the meta- 
phor of the destructive wind, shall plun- 
der every valuable article belonging to 
the Israelites. 

16. [Chap. xiv. 1.] This verse begins 
the following chapter in the Hebrew 
Bible, but it more intimately coheres with 
the preceding context. novan, LXX. 
apavicdhoerat, Vulg. pereat. The word 
signifies to be guilty of crime, and to be 
treated as guilty, to suffer punishment, be 
punished. Samaria as the metropolis, 
and the source of all the calamities which 
were coming upon the Israelites, is put 
as representing the whole nation; but 
not to the exclusion of the peculiarly 
severe punishment which the inhabitants 
of that city had to expect. m7", some 
render to embitter, provoke bitterly; but 
rebelling, resisting, striking against any 
one, are the ideas more properly conveyed 
by the verb. Thus the LXX. dvrésrn 
mpos Tov Sedv avrijs. The addition of 
the affix in m>mbsy, “her God,” gives 
great emphasis in such connection. Comp. 
chap. xii. 10, xiii. 4. The aggravations 
of sin are increased by the relations sus- 
tained by the sinner. For the conclud- 
ing portion of the verse, comp. 2 Kings 
viii. 12, xv. 16; Amosi. 13. That such 
cruelties were not unknown among other 
nations, see Iliad vi. 58 ; — 





un® Syriva yaorépe pArnp | 
Kodpoy édvra pépat, und bs pi-you ;— 


CuHap. XIV. 


and Horace, Carm. iv. Ode 6. The con- 
struction 42Ppa> wnmienn is ad sensum, 
though not aosunding to the strict rule of 


HOSEA. 


83 


grammar, and may have been occasioned 
by the form of www? immediately pre- 
ceding. 





CHAPTER XIV. 


This chapter contains an urgent call to repentance, the supplication and confession expres- 
sive of which are put in a set form of words into the mouths of the penitents,1—3. To 
encourage them thus to return to God, he makes the most gracious promises to them, 4—7; 
their entire abandonment of idolatry is then predicted, and the divine condescension and 
goodness are announced, 8; and the whole concludes with a solemn declaration, on the 
part of the prophet, respecting the opposite consequences that would result from attention 


or inattention to his message. 





Rervury, O Israel! to Jehovah thy God: 
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. 
2 Take with you words, and return to Jehovah ; 


Say to him, 


Forgive all iniquity, and graciously receive us, 
Then we will render to thee the calves of our lips. 


1,2. The = of direction in the im- 
perative man is, as usual, intensive, 
marking a strong desire on the part of 
the speaker that the action expressed by 
the verb might take place. For the 
emphasis attaching to the affix in 577s; 
“thy God,” see on chap. xii. 16. Nva 
443 is a phrase of such frequent occur- 
rence with the meaning to pardon inigq- 
uity, that it is surprising how Horsley 
could insist upon its meaning to “ take 
away the sinful principle within us — the 
carnal heart of the old Adam.” His 
construction of 25 Mp, “ accept as good, 
what, so regenerate, we shall be enabled 
to perform,’’ though sound divinity, is 
equally indefensible on the ground of 
philology. sw is used adverbially, de- 
nigne, in bonam partem ; and the mean- 
ing is, graciously receive us back into thy 
fayor. With respect to the interposition 
of the verb xwn, between >and 449, 
it may be cbeerved; that it is not a soli- 
tary instance of such construction. See 
on Is. xix. 8, and comp. Job xv. 10, 


ps, calves or bullocks, used here met- 
aphorically for victims, sacrifices. The 
word occurring in the absolute form, 
some render 42"npw 45, dullocks our 
lips, as if the two nouns were in apposi- 
tion; but there are instances of nouns 
thus put, which cannot be explained 
otherwise than in the construct, as to 
sense. Thus Deut. xxxiii. 11, po2m 
wap» the loins of those who oppose him; 
Jud. v. 13, py D>, the princes of 
the people; Prov. xxii. 21, nies DS 
words of truth. Gesenius supposes the 
governing noun to be mentally repeated, 
and that the full form would be bs, 
na np "8, dbullocks, the bullocks of our 
lips. Such construction in full he ad- 
duces in the instance Exod. xxxyiii. 21, 
naw jaw joven, the tabernacle, the 
tabernacle of testimony. Some would 
changeD™S into 5, fruit, on the ground 
of the reading found in the LXX. dvrar- 
odamev Kapmov XetAdwy judy, Which is fol- 
lowed by the Syr. and Arab. and is sup- 
posed to have been borrowed by the apostle, 


84 


8 Assyria shall not save us; 
We will not ride upon horses ; 


HOSEA. 


Cuap. XIV. 


Neither will we say any more, “ Our gods,” 


To the work of our hands: 


For by thee the destitute is pitied. 


4 Iwill heal their apostasy ; 
I will love them freely ; 


For my anger is turned away from them. 


5 I will be as the dew to Israel ; 


Heb. xiii. 15. There is, however, no 
variety in the Hebrew MSS. ; while the 
Targum and all the other authorities sup- 
port the textual reading. The LXX. 
have committed a similar mistake in ren- 
dering ms, her bullocks, tos kaprovs 
airis, her “Fruits, Jer. 1. 27. The con- 
jecture of Pococke, that they used kap- 
ads in the sense of xdprwua, which they 
employ to express SACRIFICE, ob/ation, 
ctc., is less probable. See the important 
note of Horsley. The prophet’s meaning 
is, We will render, in grateful return for 
thy forgiving and restoring mercy, the 
only sacrifices worthy of it —our tribute 
of thanksgiving and praise. For such 
use of C53, to requite, render back, comp. 
Ps. lvi. 12, 45 nitin modes, I will ren- 
der thanks unto thee: so that the con- 
struction proposed by some, “we will 
offer the sacrifices which our lips have 
vowed,” cannot be regarded as unexcep- 
tionable, even if it were in keeping with 
the spirit of the passage, ‘The only par- 
allels fully corresponding to it are Ps. li. 
15-17, lxix. 31, 32. 

8. Three of the sins to which the ten 
tribes were specially prone are here im- 
plied: dependence upon the aid of the 
Assyrians ; application to Egypt for horses 
in direct violation of the divine command, 
Deut. xvii. 16; Is. xxxi. 1; and idol- 
atry. These they now forever renounce, 
and avow their determination henceforth 
to trust in Jehovah alone; adding as the 
reason of such determination, the expe- 
rience which they had had of the divine 
favor in time of need. x is here used 
in a causal sense, because for, forasmuch 
as. Comp. Gen. xxxi. 29; Eccles. iv. 
9. t4n2, orphan is applied in this place 
metaphorically to the unprotected and 


destitute circumstances in which the Is- 
raelites had been, while in a state of 
separation from the Lord. 

4, Dna 0% is not, with Horsley, to 
be rendered ‘their conversion,’ ’* but their 
apostasy. See on chap. xi. 7. mat, 
lit. spontaneousness, willingness, is used 
adverbially for wellingly, liberally, freely. 


It is derived from 273, Arab. Wd, 


instigavit, impulit, ad aliquid ; agilis in 
conficienda re promptusgue vir; genero- 
sus; and is expressive of the ee. un- 
merited, and abundant love of God 
towards repentant sinners. 45%’, “ from 
him,’ i. e. Israel, the collective noun, 
ver. .2, resolved by the Syr. Lat. and 
other translators into a plural. 

5, 6. The love of God to his people, 
and its effects in their happy experience, 
are here couched in similes borrowed 
from the vegetable kingdom. ‘The dew 
is very copious in the East, and, by its 
refreshing and quickening virtue, sup- 
plies the place of more frequent rains in 
other countries. Kimchi thinks that the 
constancy with which the dew falls is 
the point here more specially referred to, 
and to which the divine blessing is com- 
pared. n343, lilies, abound in Palestine, 
even apart from cultivation. There are 
two kinds; the common lily, which is 
perfectly white, consisting of six leaves, 
opening like bells ; and what the Syrians 


call Lao wy 
the stem of which is about the size of a 
finger in thickness, and which grows to 
the height of three and four feet, spread- 
ing its flowers in the most beautiful and 
engaging manner. Comp. Matt. vi. 29. 
To these productions the moral beauty 
of regenerated Israel is very aptly com- 


the royal lily, 


Cuar. XIV. 


He shall blossom as the lily, 


HOSEA. 


85 


And strike his roots like Lebanon. 


6 His suckers shall spread forth, 


And his beauty shall be as the olive tree, 


And his fragrance as Lebanon, 


7 They that dwell under his shade shall revive as the corn, 


And shoot forth as the vine: 


Their fame shall be as the wine of Lebanon. 


8 Ephraim shall say, 


What have I any more to do with idols? 


pared. For Lebanon, see on Is. x. 34. 
The mountain stands here by metonymy 
for the trees which grow upon it, such as 
the celebrated cedars, whose roots striking 
far in depth and length into the ground, 
give them a firmness which no storms can 
shake. The ideas of strength and sta- 
bility are those conveyed by the simile, 
whether we refer the roots to the trees, 
or, metaphorically, to the mountain it- 
self; but the amplification in the follow- 
ing verse renders the former the prefer- 
able construction. ‘75m isoften used, not 
merely of continued, but of increased 
action, and here denotes ¢o spread out as 
the suckers or small branches of trees. 
The olive is frequently referred to, on 
account of its beautiful green, and the 
pleasing ideas associated with its produce. 
Though the former only is expressed, yet 
the idea of fragrance is implied, only it 
is with the strictest propriety extended 
in the following clause to the whole of 
Lebanon, on account of the number of 
odoriferous trees and plants with which 
it abounds. In these verses, the render- 
ing frankincense, which Newcome prefers 
to Lebanon, is not to be admitted. The 
stability, extension, glory, and loveliness 
of the church of God are forcibly set 
forth. 

7. The Israelites are represented as 
again enjoying the protection of the Most 
High, and affording the most convincing 
proofs of prosperity. 25%) is used as aux- 
iliary to 7°; both verbs, in such connec- 
tion, signifying nothing more than revive, 
thrive again, Or the like. The pronomi- 
nal affix in $x, Ais shade, refers to Je- 
hovah ; but in $453, Ads celebrity, fame, 
to Israel, understood, as before, collec- 


tively, but best rendered in the plural. 
4$xa vau-, the construct with the pre- 
position, asin 42 "pin, Ps. ii. 12. Mod- 
ern travellers concur in their high com- 
mendations of the excellence of the wines 
of Lebanon. Von Troil, in particular, 
says, “On this mountain are very valu- 
able vineyards, in which the most excel- 
lent wine is produced; such as I have 
never drunk in any country, though in 
the course of fourteen years I have trav- 
elled through many, and tasted many 
good wines,’ 

8. Several interpreters take n-45s to 
be in the vocative sense, but, as it seems 
harsh to refer the words immediately fol- 
lowing to Jehovah, it is better to regard 
it as a nominative absolute, and to supply 
=n" thus:— As for Ephraim — the tribe 
distinguished above all the rest for its 
addictedness to idolatry, and the fit rep- 
resentative of the whole people — his 
language in future shall be, etc. For», 
to me, the LXX. read 43, to him, which 
facilitates the construction, and is adopted 
by Ewald, but without sufficient author- 
ity. ax, J, is not without emphasis in 
this connection, in which mention is 
made of idols. “12 signifies to view with 
regard and care, care for, watch over. 
Every provision should henceforth be 
made for the protection and prosperity 
of restored Israel. tina, the cypress, 
with all its tall and fair ever-green ap- 
pearance, not being a fruit-bearing tree, 
it is added with singular effect, that in 
this respect there existed a difference be- 
tween the object and the subject of the 
metaphor. The children of Israel should 
not only enjoy protection and refreshment 
as the result of the divine favor, but rich 


86 | HOSEA. 


Cuap. XIV. 


I have answered him, and will regard him; 


I am like a green cypress ; 
From me thy fruit is found, 


9 Who is wise, that he may understand these things; 
Prudent, that he may know them ? 
For the ways of Jehovah are right ; 
The righteous shall walk in them; 
But the rebellious shall stumble in them, 


supplies of spiritual provision for their 
support. Such supplies were to be found 
in God alone. Manger thinks there is 
here a dialogistic parallelism, which he 
exhibits thus : — 


Eruraim. What have I further to do 
with idols? 

Gop. I have answered him, and will 
regard him. 

Eruram. I am like a green cypress. 

Gop. From me is thy fruit found. 

9. These words form an epilogue or 
conclusion to the whole book. The in- 
terrogation is employed for the purpose 
of excitement and to give energy to the 
truths conveyed. It is worthy of remark 
that this is the only verse in which the 
_ prophet uses Db pas, the righteous, or 


any synonymous term, in the course of 
his recorded prophecies. So awfully de- 
praved were the times in which he lived, 
that the very character had disappeared. 
The contrasted characters and states of 
the godly and the wicked are pointed and 
affecting. ‘yr, ¢o wash, signifies here to 
go forward prosperously ; 52>, to stumble, 
so as to fall to one’s injury and utter ruin. 


«« —__. anfractu et liberam ab omni 


Hanc justus teret, hoc semper se in calle 


tenebit, 

Felicique gradu ad requiem contendat 
amicam. 

At defectores videas impingere in iis- 
dem, 

Exitiumque sibi factis properare scelestis.” 

— Rittershusius. 


path tee intent ae 


JOEL. 





PREFACE, 


+ WE possess no further knowledge of Joel than what is furnished by the 
title of his book, or may be gathered from circumstances incidentally men- 
tioned in it. ‘That he lived in Judah, and, in all probability, at Jerusalem, we 
may infer from his not making the most distant reference to the kingdom of 
Israel ; while, on the other hand, he speaks of Jerusalem, the temple, priests, 
ceremonies, etc. with a familiarity which proves them to have been before his 
eyes. 

With respect to the age in which he flourished, opinions have differed. 
Bauer places him in the reign of Jehoshaphat; Credner, Winer, Krahmer, 
and Ewald, think he lived in that of Joash; Vitringa, Carpzov, Moldenhauer, 
Eichhorn, Holzhausen, Theiner, Rosenmiiller, Knobel, Hengstenberg, Gesen- 
ius, and De Wette, in that of Uzziah; Steudel and Bertholdt in that of Hez- 
ekiah; Tarnovius and Eckermann assign the period of his activity to the days 
of Josiah; while the author of Sedar Olam, Jarchi, Drusius, Newcome, and 
Jahn, are of opinion that he prophesied in the reign of Manasseh. . The most 
probable hypothesis is, that his predictions were delivered in the early days 
of Joash ; that is, according to Credner, B. c. 870 — 865. No reference being 
made to the Babylonian, the Assyrian, or even the Syrian invasion, and the 
only enemies of whom mention is made being the Pheenicians, Philistines, 
Edomites, and Egyptians, it seems evident that Joel was unacquainted 
‘with any but the latter. Had he lived after the death of Joash, he could 
scarcely have omitted to notice the Syrians when speaking of hostile powers, 
since they not only invaded the land, but took Jerusalem, destroyed the 
princes, and carried away immense spoil to Damascus, 2 Chron. xxiv. 23, 24. 
The state of religious affairs as presented to view in the book is altogether in 
favor of this position. No mention is made of idolatrous practices; while, on 
the contrary, notwithstanding the guilt which attached to the Jews, on account 
of which Jehovah brought judgments upon the land, the principles of the 
theocracy are supposed to be maintained; the priests and people are repre- 
sented as being harmoniously occupied with the services of religion; and 
Jerusalem, the temple and its worship, appear in a flourishing condition. Now 
this was precisely the state of things during the high-priesthood of Jehoiada, 
through whose influence Joash had been placed upon the throne. See 2 Kings 
xi. 17, 18, xii. 2-16 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 4-14. It will follow that Joel is the oldest 
of all the Hebrew prophets whose predictions have come down to us. 

The delivery of his prophecy was occasioned by the devastations produced 
by successive swarms of locusts, and by an excessive drought which pervaded 
the country, and threatened the inhabitants with utter destruction. This 


88 PREFACE TO JOEL. 


calamity, however, was merely symbolical of another, and a more dreadful 
scourge — the invasion of the land by foreign enemies, on which the prophet 
expatiates in the second chapter. In order that such calamity might be re- 
moved, he is commissioned to order an universal fast, and call all to repent- 
ance and humiliation before God; to announce as consequent upon such 
repentance and humiliation, a period of great temporal prosperity ; to predict 
the effusion of the Holy Spirit at a future period of the history of his people ; 
to denounce judgments against their enemies; and to foretell their restoration 
from the final dispersion. 

In point of style Joel stands preéminent among the Hebrew prophets. He 
not only possesses a singular degree of purity, but is distinguished by his 
smoothness and fluency; the animated and rapid character of his rhythmus; 
the perfect regularity of his parallelisms; and the degree of roundness which 
he gives to his sentences. He has no abrupt transitions, is everywhere con- 
nected, and finishes whatever he takes up. In description he is graphic and 
perspicuous ; in arrangement lucid ; in imagery original, copious, and varied. 
In the judgment of Knobel, he most resembles Amos in regularity, Nahum in 
animation, and in both respects Habakkuk ; but is surpassed by none of them. 
That what we now possess is all he ever wrote, is in the highest degree improb- 
able: on the contrary, we should conclude from the cultivated character of 
his language, that he had been accustomed to composition long before he 
penned these discourses. Whatever degree of obscurity attaches to his book, 
is attributable to our ignorance of the subjects of which it treats, not to the 
language which he employs. 


a ee 


_  _ — we 


- 


CHAPTER I. 


After summoning attention to the unexampled plague of locusts with which the country had 
been visited, 2—4, the prophet excites to repentance by a description of these insects, 5—7, 
and of the damage which they had done to the fields and trees, 8—12; calls the priests to 
institute a solemn season for fasting and prayer, 13, 14; and bewails, by anticipation, a 
more awful visitation from Jehovah, 15, while he further describes the tremendous effects 
of the calamity under which the country was suffering, 16—20. 





1 Tue word of Jehovah which was communicated to Joel, the son 


of Pethuel: 
2 Hear this, ye aged men! 


Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land! 
Did such as this happen in your days, 
Or, in the days of your fathers? 


3 Tell your children of it, 


And let your children tell their children, 
And their children another generation. 


1. $y nin agg mint oat, the usual 
introductory formula employed to express 
the communication of divine revelations 
to the prophets, or the divinely inspired 
matter which they were commissioned to 
teach. Comp. Hos. i. 1; Mic. i. 1; Zeph. 
i.1; Mal. i.1. The name x4», Joel, 
Jerome interprets apyduevos, id est incip- 
iens, referring it to the verb bao » which 
signifies to begin; but that he ‘was not 
ignorant of another derivation is evident 
from his commentary, in which, after 
giving incipiens, he adds, vel est Deus. 
It is, however, beyond all doubt com- 
pounded of =4m7, in one of its more con- 


- tracted forms, and bs, and signifies, Je- 


hovah is God. Who buona, LXX. 
BaSounaA, Pethuel, the father of our 
prophet was, we are not informed. The 
introduction of his name was necessary 
in order to distinguish the present Joel 
from others of the same name, and can- 
not be admitted in proof of his having 
been a prophet or some person of emi- 
nence. It was common among the 
Hebrews, as it still is among the Orient- 
als, to add the name of the father to that 
of the son. 


12 


2, 3. These verses contain an animated 
introduction to the following subject. 
mNt, properly ¢his, the feminine accord- 
ing to the Hebrew idiom being used for 
the neuter, but it occurs here elliptically 
for DNT3 , like this, such, the like, and 
refers to the astounding calamity of the 
locusts about to be described. vow and 
PINT frequently occur as parallel ‘initi- 
atives in Hebrew poetry. See Gen. iv. 
23; Deut. xxxii. 1; Is. i. 2. For the 
lattes verb, 2{wpn " sometimes used. 
See Is. xxviii. 23; Mic. i. 2 opT is 
here to be understood, not in the official 
sense of elders, but in that of aged men, 
as the connection shows. Those who 
were most advanced in years, and might 
be expected to have their memories stored 
with ancient occurrences, are appealed to 
for a parallel to the case referred to. 
Comp. Deut. xxxii. 7; Job. xxxii. 7. 
hias is often used in the sense of ances- 
tors, * forefathers. in mo3 , like rr, 
refers to the plague of locusts. ari “3, 
children’s children, is not unfrequent, but 
the language here employed by Joel is 
cumulative beyond example. 

« Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur 


90 


JOEL. 


Cuap. IL. 


4 That which the gnawing locust hath left, 
The swarming locust hath devoured: 
And that which the swarming locust hath left, 


ab illis.”” JEneid iii. 98. 
Kat waides waldwy, rol Kev peTdémiade 
yévwvTat. Iliad, xx. 308. 


4, The plague, which occasioned the 
following discourses of the prophet, is 
now described in terse, though repetitious 
terms. This verse may be considered as 
the text on which he afterwards expati- 
ates. Interpreters have found great diffi- 
culty both in determining the precise 
signification of the several terms employed 
to describe the scourge, and the light in 
which it was designed to be understood. 
While some are of opinion that different 
kinds of insects are meant, most are 
agreed in considering locusts to be in- 
tended. Yet here again discordant views 
obtain : some insisting on different species 
of locusts, and others on different states 
of the same species. Credner, for in- 
stance, in a work on our prophet, full of 
erudition, considers ny4 to be the migra- 
tory locust ; n37"8 the young brood; p>» 
the young locust i in the last state of trans- 
formation; and $"on the perfect locust, 
The locust belongs to the genus of insects 
known among entomologists by the name 
of grylli, which includes the different 
species, from the common grasshopper to 
the devouring locust of the East. The 
largest of the latter is about three inches 
in length; has two antenne, or horns, 
about an inch long, and two wings, 
which, with their cases, are applied ob- 
liquely to the sides of the body when in 
repose. The feet have only three joints, 
but are six in number. The two hind 
ones are much larger than the rest, and 
are formed for leaping. The locusts are 
of different colors, brown, gray and spot- 
ted. In all stages, from the larve to the 
perfect insect, the locusts are herbivorous, 
and do immense injury to vegetation. 
The subject so far as it occurs in Scripture, 
may be said to have been almost exhausted 
by the learned Bochart, in his Hierozoi- 
con, Pars Post. Lib. iv. cap. i. — viii. 
The fourth chapter he specially devotes 
to the explanation of the passages in 


Joel. See also C2dmann’s Vermischte 
Sammlungen, and Credner’s Joel. The 
first name, D7, Occurs only here and 
Amos iv. 9, and is rendered by the LXX. 
kdumn; and by the Vulg. eruca, cater- 
pillar. ‘This interpretation is supported 
by the Targ. sbmn3, the crawling insect, 
by which, however, may be meant the 
locust in its wingless state. The Syr. 


o> OO 
renders the word by LjZaumSo Jocusta 
> 


It is evidently derived from 
the same root with the Arab. gym res- 
am 


non alata. 


ecuit, amputavit e isle, secans ; en 


"JH :  excidit, abscidit ; Syrx. Shy 


incidit ; Talmud. b43; ‘amputavit ; and 
expresses the knawing or cutting action 
of the sharp teeth of the locusts on the 
leaves, and even the bark of trees. Comp. 
Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 29: omnia 
vero morsu erodentes. 358 is the gen- 
eric name of the locust, so called from 
the almost incredible numbers which breed 
in different parts of the East; being de- 
rived from 73" , ¢o multiply, be numerous, 
etc. Comp. Jer. xlvi. 23, many 1234, 
more numerous than the locusts. From 
its migrating in swarms it is called by 
Forskal gryllus gregarius, and by Lin- 
nus, gryllus migratorius, By the LXX. 
the word is rendered seventeen times 
by dxpts, the common locust ; thrice by 
Bpodxos, the unwinged locust, which 
browses on the grass; once by épvaBn, 
mildew ; and once by arréaaBos, the 
young or smatl locust. That mane is 
generic, appears from Ley. xi. 22, ‘where 
we read, $3995 M3487, the locust accord: 
ing to its species. The third name, rots 

from rb , equivalent to pp, to lick, des- 
ignates the locust as licking off the leaves, 
and whatever is green on the trees, grass, 
etc. This derivation is preferable to that 
proposed by Michaelis, who refers the word 


to the Arab. es) 93 properavit, volubilis 


Cuap. I. 


JOEL. 


91 


The licking locust hath devoured ; 
And that which the licking locust hath left, 
The consuming locust hath devoured. 


fuit, or sly, albus fuit, and thinks 
that the chafer is meant. In Nah. iii. 
16, it is represented as winged, and in 
Jer. li. 27, it is described as -720 , rough, 
bristly, terrific. LXX. Bpotxos four 
times; dxpls thrice. S°om, the remain- 
ing term comes from on, ¢o consume, 
devour. LXX. Bpotxos, or nestor 


Vulg. rubigo, mildew. Syr. ok ae, 


which Risius, the Archbishop of Padi 
cus, describes as resembling the locust, 
only differing from it, inasmuch as it 
never migrates, and confines its ravages 
to the fruits and herbs, but leaves the 
trees untouched. It is also noted for the 
noise which it makes at night. A com- 
parison of the different passages in which 
these names occur, renders it more than 
probable that they are here employed by 
the prophet, not with any reference to 
the species into which the locusts may be 
scientifically divided, but to designate 
four successive swarms, according to cer- 
tain destructive qualities, by which, as a 
genus of insects, they are distinguished, 
and thereby to heighten the terror which 
his description was intended to produce. 
Just as Job accumulates the terms 
mas, dav, PED, o7> and wa, 
chap. iv. 10, 11, with a similar view. 
They are rather poetical synonymes, than 
distinctive of different species. At all 
events, that locusts are meant, may be 
inferred from the facts, that wherever >>> 
occurs, with the exception of a single 
passage, it occurs along with many; and 
that n>, which Moses uses in desorib- 
ing one of the plagues of Egypt, Exod. 
x. 10-20, is not only employed by the 
Psalmist, lxxviii. 46, cv. 34, but also 
bon and ret , aS Synonymous terms, for 
the sake of variety. Add to which that 
the verb Son from which don is derived, 
is employed to express the action of the 
mans, Deut, xxviii. 38, n3a587 wbon, 
“the locust shall consume it.” In’ the 
translation I have given the meaning of 


the several names in terms expressive of 
the qualities suggested by each. The 
passage might otherwise be rendered with 
Noyes :— 


«‘ That which one swarm of locusts left, 
a second swarm hath eaten ; 

And that which the second left, a third 
swarm hath eaten ; 

And that which the third left, a fourth 
swarm hath eaten.” 


It is a question of greater importance: 
Are the statements of Joel in the first 
and second chapters to be understood 
literally of these insects, or figuratively 
of enemies that were to invade and lay’ 
waste the Holy Land? The latter is the 
more ancient opinion, It is that of the 
Targum, the Jews whom Jerome con- 
sulted, and Abarbanel; and is, with vari- 
ous modifications, adopted by the follow- 
ing christian interpreters: Jerome, Eph- 
raim Syrus, Theodoret, Cyril of Alexan- 
dria, Hugo de St. Vincent, Ribera, San- 
chez, a Lapide, Luther, Grotius, Markius, 
Bertholdt, Theiner, Steudel, and Hengs- 
tenberg. On the other hand, Abenezra, 
Jarchi, Kimchi, Lyranus, Vatablus, Joh. 
Schmidius, Jahn, Eichhorn, Rosenmiiller, 
von Coelln, Justi, Credner, and Hitzig, 
maintain that the language is to be un- 
derstood literally of locusts. ‘This inter- 
pretation has certainly much in its favor, 
and if it could without violence be ap- _ 
plied throughout, might fairly be adopted. 
But the announcement of a second and 
more awful judgment, chap. i. 14, ii. 1, 
2; the distinct recognition of a foreign 
rule, ii, 17; and the assignment of the 
North as the native country of the enemy, 
ii, 20; present insuperable obstacles to its 
adoption. See on these verses. There 
seems no possibility of effecting a consist- 
ent interpretation on any other principle 
than that laid down and defended by 
Cramer, Eckermann, and Holzhausen, 
viz: that in the first chapter, Joel describes 
a devastation of the country which had 
been effected by natural locusts; but 
predicts in the second its devastation by 


92 


JOEL. 


Cuap. L 


5 Awake, ye drunkards! and weep; 


Howl, all ye drinkers of wine! 


On account of the sweet wine, 


For it is made to cease from your mouth. 
6 For a nation hath come up upon my land, 


Mighty and innumerable ; 


Their teeth are the teeth of a lion; 
They have the grinders of a lioness. 


political enemies, in highly-wrought met- 
aphorical language, borrowed from the 
scene which he had just depicted. 

5. yon the Hiph. of yp, is here 
veod, like the cognate root 7725, Gen. ix. 
24, in the sense of awaking from a sleep 
occasioned by wine. Since, however, the 
persons addressed had been deprived of 
the means of intoxication, the prophet 
is rather to be understood as borrowing 
the term from the state in which they 
had too often been found. 45% being 
parallel with 42> "nw, drinkers of wine, 
does not here mean persons actually in- 
toxicated, but such as were in the habit 
of using intoxicating liquors, and by 
implication, to excess. Thus Kimchi: 
qona asmend prbann one, ye who are 
accustomed to make yourselves drunk with 
wine. It is derived from “23, to drink 


to the full. Arab. 


ebrius fuit.. Hence -2%, strong, or in- 
toxicating drink, whether wine itself, or, 
more commonly, liquor resembling wine, 
which is distilled from barley, honey, or 
, dates, and sometimes mingled with spices, 
By ovoy, is meant the fresh wine, or 
juice of the grape, or other fruit, which 
has just been pressed out, and is remark- 
able for its sweet flavor, and its freedom 


; implevit, vas, 


from intoxicating qualities. R. bo», to 


tread, tread down, or out. Targ. sR 
min, pure wine. It differs from ion, 
inasmuch as the latter term is confined 
to the juice of the grape; and being 
derived from 1° , to take possession of, 
indicates that however new, it had already 
obtained an inebriating quality. The 
locusts are here represented as specially 
attacking and destroying the vines and 
other fruit-trees, from the produce of 
which these wines were prepared. To 


such they are known to be very destruc- 

tive. Comp. Theocrit. Idyll. 5, 108, in 

which a shepherd beseeches them not to 

injure his vines : 

*Axpldes, &s toy dpaypdy breprediire Tov 
dudy, 

Mf pev AwBdoeode Tas duméras* évT) yap 
&Bat. 


n> properly signifies to cut, cut off, but 
here, as wine is the subject spoken of, it 
must be taken in the sense of destroying, 
or causing to cease. 

6. %43, nation, especially used of for- 
eign, barbarous and profane nations, and 
here selected on purpose to express the 
number and hostility of the locusts, and 
at the same time to prepare the minds of 
the Jews for the allegorical use made of 
these insects in chap. ii. If it had not 
been for some such end, the prophet might 
have adopted the term t2, people, which 
Solomon applies to the ants, Prov. xxx. 
25, 26, and which would equally have 
conveyed the idea of multitude. Comp. 
chap. ii. 2. This metaphorical use of 
the term is common in the classics. See 
instances in Bochart and Gesen. Heb, 
Lex. in voce. 43. The Arabs employ 
Xof in a similar way. by mby is used 
in a hostile sense of an army, Is. vii. 1; 
but here figuratively of the locusts. In 
sx", “my land,” the pronominal affix 
belongs to Jehovah, not to the prophet. 
Comp. Is. xiv. 25; Jer. xvi. 18; Ezek. 
xxxvi. 56, xxxviii. 16. Joelii. 18. pox, 
strong, powerful. The strength of the 
locust consists in the immense numbers, 
which, forming themselves into compact 
bodies, darken the air, and advance for- 
ward, one swarm after another, attacking 
whatever comes in their way. They may 
well be described as MED PSI, innu- 


Cuap. I. JOEL. 93 
7 They have laid waste my vine, 

And broken down my fig-tree ; 

They have completely stripped it, and thrown it down; 


Its branches they have left white. 


merable. All who refer to them, both 
in ancient and modern times, speak of 
them in the same language. 


"Axpldav mARSos audSyTov. 
Agathare. vy. 27. 


«Immense locustarum multitudines.” 
Orosius, vy. 11. Shaw speaks of ‘infi- 
nite swarms following each other,” Bar- 
row states that those which he saw in 
South Africa, might literally be said to 
cover the ground for an area of 2000 
square miles. A later writer in the Cape 
Town Gazette, describes a cloud of them 
as passing before him in a train of many 
millions thick, and about an hour in 
length ; and mentions further that, though 
millions perished in consequence of at- 
tempts made to destroy them, their num- 
ber appeared nothing decreased. And 
Dr. Bowring states in his Report, that 
some years ago the army of Ibrahim 
Pasha, in the attempt to extirpate an 
immense swarm, gathered up no less than 
65,000 ardebs, equal to 325,000 bushels 
of English measure! How appropriate 
the name mra5x! What is innumerable 
is frequently compared to them by the 
sacred writers. See Jud. vi. 5, vii. 12; 
Ps. ev. 34; Jer. xlvi. 23; Nah. iii. 15. 
' mivbmya, teeth, Gesenius considers as 
standing by transposition for nivndna, 
and derives the noun from an obsolete 
root yn, ¢o bite ; but it may more prop- 


erly bereferred tothe Arab. eA3, longum 


fuit, and denotes the grinders or jaw- 
teeth of animals. The metaphor, how- 
ever, has no respect to the size of the 
teeth of lions, but only to the terrible and 
complete destruction which they effect. 
Pliny, speaking of the locust, says: — 
«‘ Omnia morsu erodentes et fores quoque 
tectorum.” According to Fabricius, in 
his Genera Insectorum, p. 96, the teeth 
of the locust are three-forked and sharp. 
The same metaphor is used Rey. ix. 8, 
dddvTes avTa@y ds AcdvTwY jour. 


ee 


7. For the pronominal reference in 
"283 and "nosh, see on x3 in the pre- 
ceding verse. The vines and fig-trees 
might be called Jehovah’s, because, in a 
special sense, the land on which they 
grew was his. The vine has, from time 
immemorial, abounded in Palestine. It 
often grows to a great size, and produces 
grapes of corresponding bulk. Schulz 
describes one at Beitshin, near Ptolemais, 
the stem of which was about a foot and 
a half in diameter, its height was about 
thirty feet, and by its branches and branch- 
lets, which had to be supported, it formed 
a hut upwards of thirty feet broad and 
long. The clusters of these vines are 
so large, that they weigh ten or twelve 
pounds, and the berries may be compared 
with our small plums. When such a 
cluster is cut off, it is laid upon a board 
about an ell and a half broad, and three 
or four ells long, and several persons seat 
themselves about it to eat the grapes. 
Rosenmiiller, In Bib. Cab. vol. xxvii. p. 
223. Comp. Numb. xiii. 23,24. Pal- 
estine was equally celebrated for its fig- 
trees, which are not reared in gardens, as 
with us, but grow spontaneously in the 
open country. The figs were not only 
eaten fresh, but also preserved for food. 
raw, to put, is often used with nouns 
instead of the simple forms of the verbs 
to which the nouns are related. pEzp, 

Sas, 
a branch broken off from a tree. See on 
Hos. x. 7. LXX. ovyraracuds, Compl. 


breakage, Arab. _eQuas fregit. 


oOo > 
KAacuds. Syr. ONE) concissio, di- 
’ 


vulsios The locusts not only consume 
the fruit and leaves of the trees, but strip 
them of the very bark.—‘* Nec culmus, 
nec gramen ullum remaneat, et arbores 
frontibus et cortice tanquam vestibus nu- 
datze, instar truncorum alborum conspici- — 
antur.” Ludolf, Comment. p. 178. 
7bwn is here taken in its proper causa- 
tive signification. What they do not 


94 


JOEL. 


CHAP. I, 


8 Lament, as a virgin girded with sackcloth, 
On account of the husband of her youth, 


9 The offering and the libation, 


Are cut off from the house of Jehovah: 
The priests howl, the ministers of Jehovah, 


10 The field is laid waste, 
The ground mourneth ; 
For the corn is laid waste, 


devour, they so injure that it falls off the 
tree. prarnv, branches, properly the 
intertwining tendrils of the vine, from 
sw, to interweave. The vine, being the 
more valuable of the two kinds of trees, 
the suffix refers back to it; and the fig- 
tree is treated as subordinate. aadn, 
they have made or left white. ; 

8. The land, under the metaphor of a 
female, is here addressed. %ds is the 
second person feminine of the Imperative 
in Kal of mds, which usually means 
to swear, call on God as witness; but 
here it takes the signification of the Syr- 


lac iii ululavit, deploravit. hs. 
’ = ? 
is ‘" ululatus, lamentum. The deri- 


vation from $x, God, in the sense God 
have mercy, is less natural. Oneof Ken- 
nicott’s MSS. reads "bax. LXX. dp7- 
vioov. A country is frequently said to 
mourn, when it is subject to devastation. 
See Is. xxiv. 3; Jer. iv. 28, xii. 4 ; Hos. 
iv. 3. ndana, @ virgin, a young woman, 
affianced to a husband, and, in this sense, 
viewed as married to him. The idea of 
the strength of youthful affection, is that 
designed to be conveyed by the passage. 
In proportion to the force of such affec- 
tion, would be the excessive degree of 
grief for his loss. Holzhausen thinks 
that she would also grieve m7tana $y, 
on account of her virginity, and compares 
Jud. xi. 38; but this the text does not 
suggest. LXX. vingon. Compl. apSévos. 
Wrapping oneself in sackcloth was a token 
of deep mourning. %»2, properly Jord, 
master, possessor ; and secondarily hus- 
band, because in the East, wives were, 
and still are, considered as the property 
rather than the companions of their hus- 
bands, Comp. the Greek xdpios yuvai- 


xés; and for the application of ayvhp to 
one only betrothed, Matt.i. 19. Accord- 
ing to the Roman law, consensus facit 
nuptias. 

9. To a pious mind the gloomiest view 
of external calamities will be taken from 
their influence upon the cause of God. 
The cessation of the usual solemnities of 
the temple worship, occasioned by the 
destruction of the fruits of the earth, 
must have occasioned great grief to the 
religious Jew. Jerome and others think 
that as the priests would be deprived of 
their regular support, by the cessation of 
the offerings, they mourned on that ac- 
count; but of this I should say with 
Maurer, « Vates hic ndn videtur cogi- 
tasse.” wh’, stands here for offerings 
in general, whether bloody or unbloody, 
—comp. Gen. iv. 4; LXX. Sto, — 
even when restricted th its signification 
to meat offering, such as consisted of 
meal, salt, oil, and incense, the proper 
sacrifices. °2t, are understood, as 
they were always ‘connected with them, 
except in the case of the sin and trespass- 
offerings. The libation, or drink- -offering, 
was called 553, on account of its being 
poured out, fiend the root 722, fo pour. 
From the circumstance that Joel prefixes 
the article to b:245, priests, but not to 
DSN; husbandmen, and cmd, vine- 
dressers, Credner argues that he must 
either have been personally related to 
them, or that prophets and priests must 
have been more closely united at the time 
hewrotethan afterwards. Comp. 5°37 2H, 
ver. 13, ti, 17. mcm, ministers, is 
a more dignified official term than £5133, 
servants, which is employed to denote 
common slaves, as well as persons in 
more elevated situations about a king. 

10-12. The prophet enters here more 
minutely into a description of the devas- 


Pe ee ee 


ee ee a ee 


Cuap. I. 


The new wine is dried up, 
The oil languisheth. 


JOEL. 95 


11 Be ashamed, ye husbandmen ! 


Howl, ye vine-dressers ! 


On account of the wheat and the barley ; 
For the harvest of the field hath perished. 


12 The vine is dried up, 
And the fig-tree languisheth ; 


tation occasioned by the locusts. wi-rn, 
new wine, which is already in a state of 
fermentation, and so intoxicating; from 
On, to take possession of anything. See 
on ver. 5, where it is distinguished from 


“ Syr. 7 Auslto, sic dictum, 


quod se possessorem hominis facit, ejus 
cerebrum occupondo, ut ille non amplius 
sui compos sit. Sic Arab. vénwm dicitur 


Rrrw, 2 captivando, et pric, a tenendo 


oro>. 


et vinctum habendo.’ Winer in voe, 
mz, field, and mrt , ground, are syn- 
onymes ; but differ in this respect, that 
the former denotes the open, free, unin- 


closed part of a country, Arab. {un, 


extendit, dilatavit ; the latter, the rich 
red soil which is particularly fit for cul- 
tivation. Hence mtv dos, @ man of 
the field, means a hunter, Gen. xxv. 27; 

MINT BK, a man of the ground, an ag- 
riculturist. | Root ras, to be red. The 
land is here, as frequently in the He- 
brew prophets, made the subject of per- 
sonification. Some would render wan, 
as applied to the new wine, fo be 
ashamed: but occurring as it does in 
parallelism with bx » to droop, lan- 
guish like plants, it is better to retain 
the primary motion of ¥27, to become 
dry, dry up. Both vern and “i=” stand 
for the vine and the olive tree, from 
which the wine and oil are obtained. In 
the second instance w*n}m takes the sig- 
nification of gia, to be ashamed, being 
another form of the Hiphil for wan, 
Both are used intransitively. The LXX. 
retaining the signification of w3>, im- 
properly render ¢inpdvSnoay yewpyol. 


shan, the pomegranate tree, is indigen- 
ous in Palestine in Syria, and is reck- 
oned one of its noblest botanical produc- 
tions. It grows to the height of twenty 
feet, has a straight stem, spreading 
branches, lancet-formed leaves, with 
large and beautiful red blossoms. The 
fruit is of the size of an orange, brown 
in color, and affording a highly delici- 
ous and cooling juice. It is also planted 
in gardens, and in the courts of the 
houses ; and its fruit is greatly improved 
by cultivation. It is still one of the 
trees most frequently seen in those coun- 
tries. So celebrated were the dates of 
Palestine, that Pliny, speaking of the 
“an, date, or palm-tree, says, “ Judea 
vero inclyta est vel magis palmis.” It 
was adopted as a symbol of the country 
in coins struck under Vespasian and 
Domitian ; and is frequently referred 
to in the Old Testament. It sometimes 
reaches the height of an hundred feet, 
is remarkable for its straight, upright 
growth, and forms one of the most 
beautiful trees in the vegetable king- 
dom. ‘The fruit, which grows in clust- 
ters under the large leaves, is of an ex- 
ceedingly sweet and agreeable taste, and, 
as an article both of sustenance and 
traffic, is of great value to the inhabi- 
tants. In Abyssinia, the natives extract 
a juice from it which they manufacture 
into a spirituous liquor resembling cham- 
pagne. Its importance is here signifi- 
cantly expressed by the particle 53 be- 
ing used intensively before it. ibn, 


Arab. cl: the apple-tree. Rosen- 


miiller derives the word from 53, ¢o 
breathe, and in this Gesenius concurs, 
supposing the fragrant breath, i. e. smell 


96 JOEL. 


Cuap. I. 


The pomegranate, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, 
All the trees of the field are withered ; 
Yea, joy is withered away from the children of men. 
13 Gird ye, and mourn, O ye priests! 
Howl, ye ministers of the altar! 
Enter, spend the night in sackcloth, 


Ye ministers of my God! 


For the offering and the libation __ 
Are withholden from the house of your God. 

14 Appoint a sacred fast, proclaim a day of restraint ; 
Assemble the elders —all the inhabitants of the land, 


or scent, to have originated the name. 
The former of these writers adopts the 
opinion of Celsius, that the quince tree 
is specially intended; but as the Arabs 


include under cs: oranges, lemons, 


peaches, apricots, etc., the Hebrew term 
is likewise in all probability generic in 
its signification. To give to his de- 
scription the utmost latitude, Joel adds, 
mw wsy—ba, all the trees of the field, 
i, e. as Jerome explains “omnia ligna, 
vel infructuosa, vel fructifera ;’’ and, to 
bring it more home to the feelings of his 
countrymen, he represents the conse- 
quence to be, the entire removal of their 
joy. Some improperly limit 42 to 
the joy of harvest. The construction 
yo orain, to dry away from, is what 
is usually termed pregnant, and more 
forcibly expresses the removal of the ob- 
ject on which the verb terminates. 

13. The prophet now addresses him- 
self to the priests, and calls them first 
to personal mourning, and then, in the 
following verse, to institute a sacred fast, 
in order that such mourning might be 
general. After 3m supply with the 
Syr. pv, as in one of Kennicott’s MSS., 
or o77% as in one of De Rossi’s. Both 
forms occur in connection with the verb, 
which is not here to be restricted to mere 
girding, but rather signifies to wrap 
round one, Comp. Jer. iv. 8; Is. xxii. 
12, “5D, primarily ¢o smite, strike, then 
to strike the breast, in token of mourning, 
See on Is. xxxii. 12, The LXX. always 


render it by xémrecSa, except in two 
instances, in which they give it by 
kAalew, to weep. For nasa "nv, 
comp. of v@ Svoiornplw mapedpvovres, 
1 Cor. ix. 13. Some think that 4x5, 
come, is to be taken idiomatically as a 
particle of exhortation, like s=$ before 
another verb, and appeal to chap. iii. 13, 
for another instance in our prophet. 
As however, the verb is, to say the 
least, not necessarily to be so under- 
stood in that passage, and as mention 
is made of the altar, immediately before, 
it appears more proper to take it in the 
sense of entering, i. e. into the court of 
the temple, where, in the more imme- 
diate presence of Jehovah, the priests 
were to bewail their sins, and those of 
the people. Thus the LXX. cicéadSere, 
and Kimchi, 5d pwi"* nen oa, en- 
ter ye the house of God, and there mourn. 
> or 415, signifies ¢o spend, or remain 
over the night, and retains this signi- 
fication in the present passage, though, 
from the connection, it is obvious not 
one night only, but many nights are 
meant. The priests were not only to 
wear the habit of mourning during the 
day, they were also to remain in it all 
night. Ahab is said to have lain in 
sackcloth, when he humbled himself 
before God, 1 Kings xxi. 27. LXX. 
UTveoare. 

14. exp, to hallow, consecrate; to 
keep holy ; to appoint sacred or religious 
services ; here, to institute a sacred fast 
by fixing the time and circumstances, 
and preparing the people for its proper 


a i i = 


tai taal tn (tinal 


ee eee ee 


Cuap. IL. 


7081. 97 


To the house of Jehovah your God, 


And cry unto Jehovah. 
15 Alas for the day! 


For the day of Jehovah is near, 
And cometh as a mighty destruction 


From the Almighty. 


16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes ? 
Are not joy and gladness from the house of our God ? © 
17 The seeds are become dry beneath their clods ; 


observance. The Pual participle is used 
even of warriors; see on Is. xiii. 3. The 
interpretations of the Rabbins, Jarchi 
and Kimchi, 42"%6tm, and Abenezra, 
429>n, are defective, by leaving out the 
idea of sacredness, which the verb al- 
ways conveys. 532, restraint, or be- 
ing held back or prevented from labor : 

pi, day, or period, understood. See on 
Is, i. 13. The Jews were to abstain from 
their worldly avocations, and spend the 
portion of their time thus consecrated 
to the immediate and solemn duties 
of humiliation, confession, and prayer. 
DPT elders, in this connection, might 
be taken in an official sense, denoting 
those holding office among the people, 
who were expected to take the lead, and, 
by their example, to excite others to en- 
gage in the religious solemnities ; but a 
comparison of this verse with chap. ii, 
15, in which “children” and “ suck- 
lings are mentioned, would rather require 
us to understand the term as referring to 
age. The central point of convocation 
was the temple—the special theocratic 
residence of Him whose wrath was to 
be deprecated, and his mercy implored. 


pay, Arab. SE 5, (SEOs to ory out, 


ery earnestly for help. UXX. kexpdtere 
éxtevas. ‘ Ardentissimas fundite pre- 
ces,” Rosenmiiller. 

15. Joel now exclaims, p}>> ne, 
alas! for the day! ‘O infaustum et 
tristissimum illum diem!” Rosen- 
miiller. To give intensity to the ex- 
clamation, the LXX. have the triple 
o%uot, ofuot, otwot. That the min} BP, 
day of Jehovah, i. e. the period of pun- 

13 


ishment, does not mean that of the 
plague of the locusts, but a more awful 
period still future, the term inp, near, 
at hand, which is never used to denote 
the actual presence of anything, but its 
speedy approach, sufficiently proves. 
What the Jews were then suffering 
was only a prelude to still more dread- 
ful calamities. For »7y: “>, which 
forms an elegant paronomasia, see on Is. 
xiii. 6, where the same form occurs. 
The » is, as there, the Caph veritatis, 
and expresses the greatness of the evil. 

16. The verb m > is understood in 
the latter hemistich. The annual fes- 
tivals were occasions of great rejoic- 
ing. See Lev. xxiii. 40; Deut. xii. 
12, 18. 

17. This, and the three following 
verses, describe the drought which was 
simultaneous with the judgment of the 
locusts. It exhibits the singular phe- 
nomenon of four drat Aeydueva within 
the short space which it occupies. For 
the elucidation of wa», some compare * 
the Chaldee 5x, to rot, but it is with 
more propriety referred to the Arab. 


Ure, siccus fuit; and so is of the 


same signification with wn", to be dry, 
dried up. Thus Abulwalid. By the 
desiccating influence of the heat, the 
seeds that had been sown in the ground 
‘would lose all their moisture, and perish, 
That minm5 mean seeds or grains of 
corn, etc. seems ees determined 


by the use of the Syr. 3 295. pO, granum, 
Matt. xiii. 31; John xii. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 


98 


JOEL. 


Cuap. I. 


The granaries are desolate, the store-houses are destroyed, 


Because the corn is withered. 


18 How the cattle mourn ! 


How the herds of oxen are perplexed ! 


Because they have no pasture ; 


Yea, the flocks of sheep are destroyed. 


19 To thee, O Jehovah! I cry, 


For fire hath consumed the pastures of the desert, 
And a flame hath burnt all the trees of the field. 


37, in the Peshito; and the signification 
of ="5, to separate, an action which 
tikes” place when, in sowing, the hus- 
bandman scatters the seed in distinct 
grains. To the same effect Tanchum, 


Rely so,det! Gps 


U9! s? GS) as | gid, grains 
prepared for sowing, so called because 
they are scattered in the ground. MB737 ; 
elods, or lumps of earth, Comp. the 


Arab. a) Ue >| 
Thus also 


gleba terre ; 


ss terra diversa varia, 
Pp. <) s 


Ye = signifies a mark on the body, 
occasioned by the contracting or drying 
up of the skin, and resembling a round 
lump of earth or dung. ninz7 is 
synonymous with mixX, granaries ; 
and, according to the force of the local 
2 prefixed, signifies places or houses 
containing store rooms, or granaries, in 
which grain was deposited. ‘The Dagesh 
in the second % is euphonic. ‘The 
simpler form 75272, occurs Hag. ii. 19 ; 
and both are to be referred to the root 
=an, to gather, collect. For the diver- 
sified and unsatisfactory renderings of 
the ancient versions, see Pococke in loc. 
The verbs bvay and 047 are here to be 
taken in the sense of being left or neg- 
lected like places’ that have been laid 
waste or destroyed. 

18. "pa, in Niphal, expresses the per- 
plexity to which any one is reduced who 
does not know how to extricate himself 
from difficulty. The brute creation are 


graphically represented as being in this 
condition from the total failure of pas- 
turage. The pg before yx2->9,39 is in- 
tensive; even the sheep, which subsist 
on herbage unsuitable for the oxen, are 
deprived of food. As the idea of pun- 
ishment is conveyed by the verb egy, it 
was in all probability used by the pro- 
phet, in order to teach the Jews that 
innocent creatures are involved in the 
consequences of guilt incurred by trans- 
gressors. Comp. Exod. xii. 29; Jonah 
iii. 7. 

19. It isnot unusual for the Hebrew 
prophets to give expression to their own 
feelings, while describing the judgments 
that were brought upon their country. 
Comp. Is. xv. 5, xvi. 11, xxi. 3, 4, xxii. 
4; Jer. xxiii. 9. It has ‘been questioned 
whether the “fire” and “flame” are 
here to be taken literally of the actual 
burning of the grass, which often hap- 
pens in extreme heat, or whether they 
are used figuratively of the heat itself. 
The former is more probably the mean- 
ing. nasa, Kimchi explains, nvip 
Nwon, grassy pluces, places of pastur- 
age; hence pasturage itself. It is de- 
rived from 713, to be pleasant, (comp. 
ms2) to dweii: but signifying in this 
connection the green, grassy spots, so 
eagerly desired by the cattle, and pleas- 
ant both to man and beast. From the 
circumstance that such places would 
naturally be selected for occupancy by 
tents, dwellings, etc. the word came also 
to signify habitations. Comp. the Arab. 


s9 \, diversatus fuit, hospitio excipit : 
= 


Lo, mansto, sedes commorationis, 


S? 


ee 





a a ae ae 


Ee ae Ss tS lO Oe 


aS 


— 





Cuap. II. 


JOEL. 99 


20 The very beasts of the field look up to thee, 
Because the streams of water are dried up, 
And fire hath devoured the pastures of the desert. 


20. any, Arab. ey Eth. UC)s 
ascendit : to look up with panting or 
earnest desire. Arab. X= pam inclinatio, 


propensioin rem. The word beautifully 
expresses the natural action of animals 
parched with thirst, and deprived of all 
supply of water. They hold up their 
heads, as if their only expectation were 
from the God of heaven. LXX. dé. 
Baevav. Comp. Ps. xlii. 2, where the 
force of pig—"p*Ds—>y is lost by the 
rendering of our common version, “after 


the water-brooks.” It should be a¢ or 
beside, as the Psalmist evidently intended 
to represent the deer standing on the 
brink of the channels in which water 
usually flowed, but which had become 
dry. ‘To their pitiable condition he com- 
pares his own circumstances when de- 
prived of the usual means of spiritual 
refreshment. The idea of their crying 


to God, which the Syr. >» and the 


Rabbins attach to the word, is derived 
from such passages as Job. xxxviii. 41 ; 
Ps. ciy. 21, exlvii. 9, rather than from 
anything expressed by the word itself. 





CHAPTER II. 


THE prophet reiterates his announcement of the approach of a divine judgment more 
terrific in its nature than that of the locusts, but employs language borrowed from the 
appearance and movements of these insects, in order to make a deeper impression upon 
his hearers, whose minds were full of ideas derived from them as instruments of the 
calamity under which they were suffering, 1-11. He then summons anew to humilia- 
tion and repentance, 12-17; giving assurance that on these taking place, Jehovah would 
show them pity, destroy their enemy, and restore them to circumstances of great tem- 
poral and religious prosperity, 18-27; and the chapter concludes with a glorious promise 
of the abundant effusion of the influences of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic age, 28, 29, 
and a prediction of the Jewish war, and the final subversion of the Jewish state, 30, 31, 
in the midst of which such as embraced the worship and service of the Messiah should ex- 


perience deliverance, 32. 





1 ‘Brow ye the trumpet in Zion! 
And sound the alarm in my holy mountain! 


1. To give the greater effect to the 
alarm here commanded to be sounded, 
Jehovah himself is introduced as speak- 


ing. The persons addressed are the 
priests, on whom it devolved to blow 
with trumpets. # odAmryt Spyavov Fort 


100 


JOEL. 


Cuap. II. 


Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble ; 
For the day of Jehovah cometh ; it is near. 


2 A day of darkness and gloom, 


A day of clouds and dense obscurity ; 
Like the dawn spread over the mountains 
A numerous and mighty people : 


None such have ever been, 


Neither shall there ever be after them, 
During the years of successive generations. 


modg¢uov. Philo de Septenario. They 
were to warn all of the threatened judg- 
ment. Comp. chap. i. 15, where the 
prophet anticipates what is now about 
to be the subject of a special descrip- 
tion. 

2. Synonymes are here accumulated 
to give intensity to the expression of the 
thought. The awful calamity which 
was to come upon the Jews is set forth 
under the metaphor of darkness, which 
is of frequent occurrence in the Hebrew 
Scriptures, when sufferings and misery 
are the subjects of discourse. Comp. 
Is. viii. 22, lx. 2; Jer. xiii. 16; Amos 
v. 18; Zeph. i. 15. In the present 
instance, however, there was a singular 
propriety in adopting the language, since 
the prophet was just going to introduce 
an allegory founded upon the fact, that 
swarms of locusts had come over the 
land, and intercepting, by their density, 
the light of the sun, had occasioned an 
universal darkness. See on ver. 10. 
Some interpreters have stumbled at the 
apparent incongruity of comparing the 
coming affliction with the =m, aurora, 
since the idea usually suggested by the 
figurative use of that term is joy, or 
prosperity ; but as this idea is not ex- 
clusively conveyed by the use of it, as 
it is also employed to express the cer- 
tainty, Hos. vi. 3, and suddenness of 
anything, Hos. x. 15, so here the ob- 
vious points of comparison are merely 
the suddenness and extent of the change 
produced by the diffusion of the rays 
of light, without any. reference to the 
nature of the change itself. 

Joel now proceeds to introduce and 


describe thes hostile army of the Assy- 
rians in the same terms in which he had 
metaphorically described the locusts, 
chap. i. 6; only exchanging “4s, nation, 
fer ty, people, which is also used of 
foreign and idolatrous nations, Numb. 
xxi. 29; 1 Chron. xvi. 20; Jer. xlviii. 42. 
In this description, he not only transfers 
the metaphor back to the proper subject 
from which it was taken, but converts it 
into an allegory, and at considerable 
length, and in the most minute manner, 
exhibits the invasion, the formidable 
character, and the ravages of the bar- 
barian foe. So perfectly is the allegorical 
veil woven throughout, that most com- 
mentators have been able to discover 
nothing more than natural locusts in the 
passage. At the time in which the 
prophet delivered his message the locusts 
covered the land; they were before his 
eyes; the idea of them had so taken 
possession of his mind, that, considering 
the striking resemblance which they 
bore to an invading army, nothing was 
more natural than to exhibit the latter 
in sensible images taken from the scene 
by which both he and his hearers were 
surrounded. And, accustomed as they 
had been to the parabolic style of pro- 
phecy, they could have been at no loss 
to discover, that when in this part of 
his discourse he appeared to speak of 
locusts, it was not natural but. political 
locusts he had in view. - While the de- 
cidedly future aspect of the calamity, 
chap. i. 15, ii. 1, proves that it had not 
taken place at the time the words were 
delivered, a comparison of the language 
in the concluding part of verse 2, with 


Ths 


i a oe 


ee a ae ee en ee 


8 oO 


See EY Oe Ee ee ee ee a 


4) 


a ee ee ee ee eee eee ee 


Caap, Il. 


3 Before them fire devoureth, 


JOEL. 101 


And behind them a flame burneth ; 
Before them the land is like the garde of Eden, 
But behind them a desolate wilderness : 
And there is no escape from them. 
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, 


And they run like horsemen, 


that employed chap. i. 2, equally proves 
that a plague of locusts could not have 
been intended. We must, therefore, 
with the alteration of a single word, 
adopt the language of Jerome, ** dum 
locustas legimus, Assyrios cogitamus.” 
That the Assyrian invasion under Sen- 
nacherib, and not that of the Chaldeans 
under Nebuchadnezzar, is meant, ap- 
pears from the emmense number of the 
army, its entire destruction in the land 
of Palestine, and there being no refer- 
ence whatever to the captivity in Baby- 
lon, the omission of which is unimag- 
inable, on the supposition that the lat- 
ter of the two invasions was intended, 
The army of Sennacherib must have 
been the largest that ever entered Pa- 
lestine, since only that division of it 
which invested Jerusalem, amounted to 
nearly 200,000 men, Is. xxxvii. 36. It 
was marching forward to the conquest 
of Egypt, and, like a swarm of locusts, 
covered the whole land. All the fortified 
cities of Judah were taken, Is. xxxvi. 1; 
the cultivated fields and vineyards wete 
trodden down or consumed, xxxvii. 30; 
and nothing short of utter destruction 
seemed to await the inhabitants. The 
design of the Divine Spirit, to whose 
infinite mind the future event was 
present, in dictating the prediction in 
the language here employed, appears to 
have been, to deepen the impressions 
produced by the plague of locusts, and 
thereby to excite to that repentance and 
amendment of life, which alone could 
secure to the Jews the continuance of 
their national blessings. 

3. A description of the desolate state 
to which Judea was to be reduced, in 
language borrowed from that given of 
the drought, chap. i. 19. 735%, before 


him, and sms, behind him, are used to 
express universality ; ; ubicunque. Comp. 
1 Chron. xix. 10. This construction is 
confirmed by what follows: muse 63 
4> mnn-Nd, and there is no escape » from 
them, or, more literally, in reference to 
them. mu°>E properly signifies those 
who have escaped i in the war; who have 
not been killed, or taken prisoners; but 
it is also used of fruits of the earth 
which have not been destroyed, Exod, 
x. 5. The contrast between the beauty 
of Paradise and the desolation of a des- 
ert, is exquisitely forcible and affect- 
ing. 

4. The allegory now becomes special 
and minute in its features, which are 
selected from the phenomena and opera- 
tions of an invading army, the subject 
of which it is to be understood ; but 
having the invasion by the locusts as its 
basis, and therefore presenting these 
prominently to view, and comparing 
them to the army, which is thus stu- 
diously concealed. On this principle 
there is no difficulty in accounting for 
the particle of comparison, so liberally 
used in this and the following verses. So 
strong is the resemblance of the head of 
the locust to that of a horse, that they 
are on this account called cavaieites by 
the Italians. This feature Theodoret 
thus notices: ef tis dxpiBas Karido: Thy 
Keparty tis axplSos, oddipa tH Tov 
trmov éouviay edphoe. In Rev. ix. 7, 
the locusts are compared to horses har- 
nessed for battle: 7a duompata tov 
axpliwy Suo1a trmos Hromacuévois «is 
méAeuov. Such comparison is very com- 
mon among the Arabs. The point of 
comparison in the second member of 
the parallelism, is the swiftness with 
which cavalary advance to the attack. 


102 


JOEL. 


Cuap, II. 


5 They bound lke the rattle of chariots on the tops of the mountains; 
Like the crackling of the flame of fire devouring the stubble ; 
Like a mighty people arranged for battle. 

6 Before them the people tremble ; 


All faces withdraw their color. 


7 They run like mighty men ; 


They scale the wall like warriors ; 


They all march in their courses, 


They break not their ranks. 
8 They press not each other: 


They march on, each in his path; 
Though they fall among the missiles, 


They break not up. 


9 They run eagerly through the city ; 


They run upon the wall; 


5. 3p" is used of the rapid and bound- 


ing course of chariots over a rough sur- 
face, Nah. iii. 2. See also Rev. ix. 9. 


“¢.— per purum tonantes 
Egit equos volucremque currum.” 


Horace, Carm. i. 34, 7. 


& vacuos dat in aéra saltus 


Succubiturque alte, similisque est cur- 
rus inani.” 





Ovid. Metam. ii. 165. 


Speaking of the noise made by a swarm 
of locusts, Forskél says: ‘ 'Transeuntes 
grylli super verticem nostrum sono 
magne cataracte ferebant.” To the 
same effect Morier: “On the 11th of 
June, while seated in our tents about 
noon, we heard a very unusual noise, 
that sounded like the rustling of a great 
wind at a distance. On looking up, we 
perceived an immense cloud, here and 
there transparent, in other parts quite 
black, that spread itself all over the sky, 
and at intervals shadowed the sun.” It 
is however, not improbable, that the 
sound here referred to is that produced 
by the large hind legs of the locust in 
leaping. ‘The comparison at the end of 
the verse, is to the clashing of arms, and 
the shouting of an army on the point of 
engaging in battle. 


6. sboms, they tremble, from ban, to 
turn round, twist one’s self, writhe with 


pain; then to tremble. Arab. Jk, 
med. Wau, Zo be turned. “MRE, warmths 


ruddiness of countenance. Arab. yi: 


estuavit, efferbuit. “amnNb Yap, to with- 
draw their ruddiness, or color, i. e. to 
change color, grow pale with terror. 
Nah. ii. 11. Comp. 502, ¢o turn pale. 
The ancient versions concur in rendering 
the words, every face like the blackness of 
a pot; deriving the last word from 18; 
hence “5, pot, without x. Of the 
terror inspired by locusts, we cannot 
have a better proof than the Arabic 


proverb : olyst upre Oye, more 
terrible than the locusts. 

7-9. Here the description quite excels 
in the graphic. The comparison to war- 
riors is admirably carried out. First, 
their rapid advance upon the city is 
specified ; next, their scaling the walls 
in the most regular order; then their 
consentaneous encounter with the troops 
of- defence, their invulnerability, their 
progress through the streets, their climb- 
ing the walls, and entering the win- 
dows of the houses, are set forth in terms 


iii 


a a ee ie 


a a ee ee ee ee 





s adlaed > ee ee 


Cuap. IL. 


They go up into the houses ; 


JOEL. 103 


They enter the windows like a thief. 


of singular and appropriate beauty. 
way, Arab. brs, sidit, vulneravit, 


loxre, fissus, has here the significa- 


tion of breaking up the order or regu- 
larity with which a body of troops pro- 
ceed when marching to the attack. 
Abenezra and Kimchi compare r33, to 
to pervert, turn aside which comes nearly 
to the same thing. LXX. éxAlyvwor. 


Syr. (od. Gesenius thinks the 


verb is here used in a sense cognate with 
the significations in Kal and Hiphil, ¢o 
give or take a pledge; but the idea of 
exchange, change, is not clearly brought 
out. ‘The regular military order with 
which the locusts advance, has been fre- 
quently described. ’"ASactAeutov yap 
h axpls, eorparever piv yap é& évds 
evrdxtws KeAcvouatos’ gaol 5é abtas 
oroxnddov i¢vat, Kot &s év tdter ditwrac- 
Sa, cal Heiota ev arovorgiCerSat, wep- 
téres 8& o¥Tws GAAHAas, Goavel Ka) 
adergal, picews adrijs RpaBevolons 7d 
@iadaanaov. Cyril. The testimony of 
Jerome, as an eye-witness in Palestine, is 
peculiarly valuable: ‘ Hoc nuper in hac 
provincia vidimus. Quum enim locus- 
tarum agmina venirent, et aerem, quo 
inter coelum et terram est, occuparent 
tanto ordine ex dispositione jubentis Dei 
volitant, ut instar tesserularum, que in 
pavimentis artificis figuntur manu, swum 
locum teneant, et ne puncto quidem, ut 
ita dicam, ungueve transverso declinent 
ad alteram.’ Morier also remarks on 
those which he saw: “ They seemed to 
be impelled by one common instinct, 
and moved in one body, which had the 
appearance of being organized by a 
leader.” Comp. Prov. xxx. 27, 77s 75% 
tbo vain SS mans, there is no king to 
the locusts, yet they go forth, all of them 
dividing, i. e. themselves into regular 
companies or swarms, with all the dis- 
cipline of a well-ordered army. 75"; 
signifies so to press upon one as to com- 
pel him to move from his place. Not- 


withstanding the immense crowds of the 
locusts, not only does none of them break 
the ranks by deviating from the straight 
course which they pursue, but none 
forces his fellow from his rank. Their 
watchword may be said to be onward ; 
for they never turn back. If they enter 
houses, they go straight through them, 
and out at the opposite side. Thus 
Abulphargius relates in his Chron. Syr. 
p- 184: * postquam a latere meridionaie 
domos intraverant, a latere septemtri- 
onale egrediebantur. x3, properly means 
any missile weapon thrown at an en- 
emy, from mbw, to send or cast forth ; 
but it is also frequently used of the 


sword. Comp. the Arab. arma. 


? 


sza, is of somewhat difficult determi- 
nation. The ground idea seems to be 
that of mediation, a being, or doing any- 
thing between two; hence wy b$5nm, 
to make supplication for any one, i.e. by 
interposing between him and the party 
to whom the supplication is addressed. 
To this the signification derived from the’ 


Arab. (423, post, nearly approximates, 


as occurring in the Hebrew. Between, or 
among, will suit most of the passages in 
which the word occurs. See Winer and 
Credner. Taking nbw as a collective 
noun, the meaning of nbs 7y3 t£3, will 
be to fall among the missiles, i.e. to light, 
or come down among them; and referring 
3ys2° to the whole swarm, what it ex- 
presses is, that they are not broken up, 
or interrupted in their course. Compare 
a similar use of au, to break, Dan. xi. 
22. -»y32, in the city, i. e. any city or 
town that may lie in their way. Cred- 
ner’s appeal to chap. iv. [iii.] 17, in proof 
that Jerusalem is specifically meant, can- 
not be sustained, since that part of the 
prophecy relates to a totally different sub- 
ject. The scene is rather the land of © 
Judah, with its fortified cities, which 
were overrun and plundered by the As- 
syrian troops, 


104 , JOEL. 


Cuap. II, 


10 Before them the earth trembleth, 


The heavens shake, 


The sun and the moon are darkened, 
And the stars withdraw their shine. 
11 Jehovah uttereth his voice before his army ; 


Surely his camp is very large ; 


Surely it is mighty, executing his order ; 
Surely the day of Jehovah is great, and very terrible: 


Who can endure it ? 


12 Now, therefore, saith Jehovah, 
Turn ye to me with all your heart, 
And with fasting and weeping and mourning ; 
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, 
And turn to Jehovah your God ; 
For he is pitiful and compassionate, 


10,11. Though the language here 
employed may in part admit of a literal 
application to the obscuration of the air 
by the locusts, yet it is, as a whole, to be 
regarded as a specimen of the highly 
wrought hyperbolical, which forms one 
of the more distinguishing features of 
Hebrew poetry. min? d&p, the voice of 
Jehovah, is here, as frequently, thunder, 
and not any word of command, as some 
have imagined. Com. Exod. ix. 23, 
29,33; Ps. xviii. 14; Ps. Ixxvii. 18, 19. 
The locusts are called ‘the $9, army of 
Jehovah, with further reference to the 
numbers and power of an army. One of 
the laws of Mohammed is thus expressed : 


die Lol ol tt I uis 9, 
plac SI al}, Ye shall not kill the 


locusts, for they are the army of God 
Almighty. Damir. And olst )9 


Lord of the locusts, is one of the names 
of God among the Mohammedans. The 
entire description closes with the brief 
but pointed interrogation, 5°55 2, 
Who can endure it? to which the im- 
plied answer is, None. Comp. Mal. iii. 
2, twin pier dodo: ma, and Jer, 
x. 16, Sart O43 sbo5> wd. 

12, Jehovah himself is here intro- 


duced, urging the necessity of immediate 
humiliation. mMAy—p37, is intensive. The 
) is that of consequence, deducing an 
argument from what had preceded; m3 
is augmentative and emphatic, as usually 
in Joel; and mmy has special reference 
to the existing’ circumstances of the 
persons addressed, and the instant atten- 
tion which the divine message required. 
The combination marks strong feeling in 
the speaker, and the urgent nature of 
the subject to which it is introductory. 
It is to be connected with "7¥ s53, and 
not with mim? psp. 4 

13. The “prophet resumes his address, 
and founds upon the call of Jehovah, 
contained in the preceding verse, an 
exhortation to sincere inward repentance, 
which he supports by encouragements 
deduced from the benignity of the divine 
character. Rending the garments was 
usual on occasions of great mourning, 
see Gen. xxxvii. 29, 34; 1 Sam. iv. 12; 
1 Kings xxi. 27; Ezra ix. 3, 5; Is. 
xxxvii. 1. This custom obtained not 
only among the Hebrews, but also among 
the Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, 
Greeks and Romans. m¥77, is neither 
the plague of locusts, nor the invasion of 
the Assyrians, but the calamities in gen- 
eral which God brings upon mankind. 
This interpretation the preceding con- 
text requires. 


ee 


eee Se ee 


ee a ee ee a 


Oe ee 


a 


— 7 


Cuap. Il. 


JOEL. 105 


Long-suffering, and of great mercy, 


And repenteth of the evil. 


14 Who knoweth? He may turn and repent, 
And leave a blessing behind him — 


An offering and a libation, 
For Jehovah your God. 


15 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, 


Appoint a sacred fast ; 
Proclaim a day of restraint. 


16 Assemble the people: convene a sacred assembly ; 
Collect the aged; gather the children, 
And those that suck the breasts ; 
Let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber, 
And the bride from her nuptial bed. 
17 Between the porch and the altar, 
Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep ; 
And let them say, Have pity, O Jehovah! upon thy people, 


14, The question 31» “ya, who knoweth, 
while it suggests the idea of the great- 
ness of the sin to be pardoned, also con- 
veys that of the possibility of such par- 


don, 
6é 





GAA’ ert Kad vor, 

Tadr’ eclmos “AxiAni Sdidpor, aike 
ridnrat. 

Tis 8 off ef xév of, oby Saluom, Supdy 
dpivas, 

Mapermdy ;”’ 

Iliad, xi. 789. 


God’s leaving a blessing behind him, 
presupposes his return to visit his people 
in mercy. The first-fruits of prosperity 
are due to Him through whose blessing 
it is conferred. 

15, 16. Comp. ver. i. and chap. i. 14. 
Here the distribution into classes is more 
minute than in the latter of these pas- 
sages. The mourning was to be uni- 
versal. The m= nm, was the bridal couch, 
richly provided with a canopy, curtains, 
etc. Root 55n,; ¢o cover, protect. See 
for the force of the reference to the last 
class mentioned, Deut. xxiv. 5. 


17. nba, Arab. JI, prior, anterior ; 


the mpovdos, or porch, before the temple, 
more strictly taken. It was an hundred 
14 


and twenty cubits high, twenty broad 
from north to south, and ten long from 
east to west. The m1, altar, was that 
of burnt-offering in the court of the 
priests. Here, with their backs toward 
the altar, on which they had nothing to 
offer, and their faces directed towards 
the residence of the Shekinah, they were 
to weep, and make supplication on be- 
half of the people. br42 na~dy, Jar- 
chi, Secker, Micheelis, Rosenmiiller, J usti, 
Credner, Winer, Gesenius, Maurer, Noyes, 
Hitzig, and Ewald, render, that the na- 
tions should make a proverb of them ; but 
such construction is totally unauthor- 
ized by Hebrew usage. In a ards of 
fifty instances, in which 2 by occurs 
in the Hebrew Bible, it is never once used 
in the sense of employing derision, or 
satirical language, but uniformly in that 
of likening, or of exercising rule or do- 
minion. In fact, the verb is nowhere 
used either with or without the prepo- 
sition in the signification of deriding. It 
is the noun alone that is thus employed 

in the forms y> jn2, mon, bi, asm, 
to be, set, give, etc. to a derision. Ezek. 
xvi. 44, forms no exception. The ancient 
versions all agree in the translation, that 
the heathen should rule over them. LXX. 
Tov Katdpta avtav evn. Targ. ndsnd 


106 


And deliver not thine heritage to reproach, 


JOEL. 


Cuap. ID. 


That the nations should rule over them. 
Why should they say among the people, 


Where is their God ? 
18 


Then Jehovah will be jealous for his land, 


And take compassion upon his people : 
19 Yea, Jehovah will answer, and say unto his people, 

Behold! I will send you the corn, 

And the new wine, and the oil, 

And ye shall have abundance thereof: 

And I will no more deliver you to reproach among the nations. 
20 I will also remove the Northern from you, 

And drive him into a dry and barren land ; 


Oo > v 
eoy oyina. Syr. {a ddcaSo 
[sats Vulg. ut dominentur eis Nna- 
tiones. Hexap. Syr. (ool ooade 


{hotes. {Les Thus also Kimchi, 
Abenezra, Leo Juda, Junius and Tre- 
mellius, Jewish-Spanish, Lyranus, Dru- 
sius, Calvin, Newcome, Dathe, Booth- 
royd, and Hengstenberg ; and there 
does not appear to be any reason why it 
could ever have been rendered other- 
wise, but for the influence of the hypo- 
thesis, that the preceding part of the 
prophecy relates to locusts, and not to 
political enemies. ‘Ideo ridiculum est 
quod multi putant contexti sermonem 
de locustis: illud prorsus alienum est a 
Prophetie mente.” Calvin, in doc. 


18. sap, Arab. Lis, valde rubuit ; in 


Piel sp , to be jealous, from the redness 

or flush by which the face is suffused, 

when a person is under the influence of 
ssion. 

19, 20. In the former of these verses, 
respect is had to the removal of the 
calamity, from which the Jews were 
suffering at the time the prophecy was 
delivered ; in the latter, that of the 
foreign enemy by whom the country was 
to be invaded. The article is placed 
before 435 whan, and =mx°, to give 
them prominence, as the principal objects 


which had suffered from the locusts, and 
which were now to be restored. The 
term "347, the Northern, Northlander, 
or, as Coverdale renders, Him of the 
North, is of prime importance in the 
interpretation of the prophecy. It has 
been urged against its having any refer- 
ence to the locusts, that they visit Pales- 
tine from the south, and not from the 
north ; but this objection can scarcely be 
regarded as valid, since, though they do 
not usually come from that quarter, yet 
they may be carried by a south wind 


‘across Arabia Deserta, and then, when 


to the north of Palestine, be driven south, 
or south-west into that country. That, 
however, which determines the question, 
is the addition of the patronymic » to 
jib , indicating that the North was not 
merely the quarter whence the subject of 


‘ discourse came, but that its native country 


lay to the north of Palestine: just as 
sym , the Temanite, means the South- 
ern, or he who dwells to the right of Pal- 
estine; "13%, @ native Egyptian; in 


Arabic Pet a Meccite, so, a 


Medinite, i. e. a native or inhabitant of 
Mecca and Medina. Now it is agreed 
on all hands, that the native country of 
the locusts is the regions of Arabia, the 
Lybian deserts, and the Sahara of Egypt ; 
so that according to the usus loquendi, 
they cannot be meant by the term here 
employed. Indeed, so much has this 








ee ee a 


ee ae Ri te 


» A? Ae 


Cuap. II. 


JOEL. 107 


. His van towards the Eastern sea, 
And his rear towards the Western sea ; 


* And his odor shall come up, 
And his stench ascend, 


Because he hath done great things, 


been felt by some of those who have ad- 
vocated the hypothesis, that locusts are 
intended, that they have been under the 
necessity of having recourse to far-fetched 
expedients, in order to support it. Justi, 
contrary to all analogy, proposes to ren- 
der, ‘the locusts that march northwards.” 
or to explain the term north of what is 
dark, hostile, or barbarous; which con- 
struction of the meaning is, in part, 
adopted by Hitzig. Maurer, on the other 
hand, setting aside these and other me- 


thods, has recourse to the Arab. 


deposuit excrementum, and thence deduces 
for "345s, the signification of stercoreus, 
or, in case this derivation should not be 


approved, to pw, decorticare radendo, 


and considers the reference to be either 
to the injurious influence of their dung 
on the trees, herbage, etc., or to their 
stripping them of their verdure. 

On the supposition that by *24n=71, the 
Northern, the Assyrians are meant, every 
difficulty vanishes. And that they may 
with the strictest propriety be so termed, 
is proved by Zeph, ii. 13: ‘ And he 
will stretch out his hand y4ps—>», upon 
the North, and destroy Assyrza, and will 
make Nineveh a desolation, and dry as a 
wilderness.”’ The Jews were accustomed 
to call Assyria and Babylonia the North, 
and the North country, because they lay in 
that direction from Palestine. ‘ Queres, 
quisnam hic Aquilonaris? §. Hieron. 
Theodor. Remigius, Albertus et Hugo 
accipiunt Sennacherib, quem Dominus, 
longeé fecit a Jerusalem: quia dum eam 
obsideret, angelus Domini una nocte per- 
cussit centum octuaginta quinque millia 
militum, itaque eam fugere compulit. 4 
Reg. xix. 35.”"— A Lapide. 

The geographical specification which 
follows in the verse is designed to express 
the universality of the destruction of the 


Assyrians. They were to be dispersed 
in every other direction but that from 
which they had come. By -2:3957 Den, 
the Eastern Sea, is meant the Asphaltic 
lake; by y4-nsn D971, the Western Sea, 
the Mediterranean ; add by maz oS 
mnanes, a dry and desolate land, the 
deserts of Arabia. Literally the words 
“370781 » and Vos, signify what is 
before and behind, and are applied geo- 
graphically in reference to the Orientals 
reckoning the different quarters according 
to the positions of front and rear, right 
and left, while they face the east, which 
is with them the principal point of the 
compass. The language of the prophet 
is figurative, the metaphor being still 
borrowed from the locusts, which perish 
when blown by a storm into the sea, or 
the sandy desert. Jerome refers to a 
similar scene, which literally happened 
when he was in Palestine. ‘“ Etiam 
nostris temporibus,” he says, ‘ vidimus 
agmina locustarum terram texisse Ju- 
deeam, que postea vento surgente in 
mare primum et novissimum precipitata 
sunt.”” And he immediately adds, what 
illustrates the statement of Joel relative 
to the ascending of the stench: ‘Cum- 
que littora utriusque maris acervis mor- 
tuorum locustarum quas aque evomuer- 
ant, implerentur, putredo earum et foetor 
in tantum noxius fuit, ut aeram quoque 
corrumperet, et pestilentia tam jumen- 
torum, quam hominum gigneretur. 0°28 
and 5‘, face and end are here used in 
the military sense of van and rear, and 
cannot, without violence, be interpreted 
of the swarm of locusts, and a brood 
which succeeded them. m2m=, is a 
&imat Aey. comp. M2, 40 be foul, putrid, 


to stink. Arab. X54, sordes. Giv- 


ing an account of the locusts, Thevenot 
says, “* They live not above six months, 
and, when dead, the stench of them so 


108 


JOEL. 


Cuap. IL 


21 Fear not, O land! rejoice and be glad, . 
For Jehovah doeth great things! 

22 Fear not, ye beasts of the field ! 
For the pastures of the desert spring up, 


For the tree beareth its fruit ; 


The fig-tree and the vine yield their strength. 
23 Rejoice, ye sons of Zion! and be glad in Jehovah your God; 


corrupts and infects the air, that it often 
occasions dreadful pestilences.”” The con- 
cluding words of the verse convey the 
idea of moral agency, and -can with no 
propriety be interpreted of the locusts, 
myvzd taan. LXX. eueydawe ra 


epyaavrov. Syr. posto jon} 2.2}; 


he exalted himself in acting. ‘The phrase 
is obviously used here in a bad sense, and 
indicates the pride of the Assyrians ; 
comp. 2 Kings xxi. 6, where nivy> ma4n, 
a similar idiom, occurs. As employed i in 
the following verse of our prophet, it is 
placed in antithesis with the sense in 
which it is here used, and is to be dif- 
ferently understood : viz. of the great 
things that God would do for his people, 
comp. Ps. cxxvi. 2, 3. 

21-23. In these verses there is a 
beautiful gradation. First, the land, 
which had been destroyed by the enemy, 
is addressed in a prosopopeeia; then the 
irrational animals which had suffered 
from the famine ; and lastly, the inhabi- 
tants themselves. All are called upon 
to cast off their fears, and rejoice in the 
happy change which Jehovah would 
effect. Desolation, barrenness, and fam- 
ine, would disappear, and times of pros- 
perity and happiness return, 4% "23, 
Sons of Zion, properly the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem, but here evidently used to 
denote those of the land generally, of 
which Jerusalem was the metropolis, and 
Zion the centre of religious influence. 
mpzs> mix, is rendered in the Targ. 
i273 jimBd, your teacher in righteous- 
ness ; which Abarbanel explains, 34 
mats sn re mew pwn Sh 
V1wP AWN Mvven mei. And he is 
the king Messiah, who shall teach them 
the way in which they shall walk, and 


the works that they should do. The 
same, or a similar construction of the 
words is found in the Vulg. Rufinus, 
Jarchi, Pagninus, Munster, Leo Juda, 
Castalio, the Jewish-Spanish, Remigius, 
Rupertus, Vatablus, Ribera, Mercer, 
Cicolamp., Luther, and most of the early 
Lutheran interpreters; and, among the 
modern, Pick and Hengstenberg, the 
latter of whom contends for it at con- 
siderable length, and decidedly considers 
the passage to be one of the Messianic 
prophecies. That mix signifies teacher, 
is beyond all doubt, see 2 Chron. xy. 3 ; 
Job xxxvi. 22; Is. ix. 15, xxx. 20; and 
from the occurrence of the word in this 
place in connection with mp 7s , righteous- 
ness, Which is so frequently referred to 
the Messiah both in the Old and New 
Testaments, there is something very 
plausible in the application of the term 
to him who is specially called by Malachi 
mE wed, Tue Sun or RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
chap. iv. 4, 7. e, the author of that illu- 
mination of knowledge which has right- 
eousness for its object. To such interpre- 
tation, however, there appear to me to be 
the following insuperable objections : — 
First, it is repugnant to the circumstances 
of the context ; ‘non videtur tamen ferre 
hunc sensum circumstantia loci.” Calvin; 
who says of the reason adduced in support 
of it, that it would be out of place to give 
such prominence to merely temporal 
blessings: ** sed ratio illa est nimis fri- 
gida;’’ and goes on to show that, in ac- 
cordance with the custom of the pro- 
phets, Joel begins with these inferior bless- 
ings, and afterwards, in ver. 28, proceeds 
to treat of those which are spiritual. Sec- 
ondly, the repetition of the same term, 
mia, immediately after, where, as all 
allow, it must be taken in the accepta- 
tion of rain.. And thirdly, the pecul- 


ae ee 


OD Se Re ee ee 


— 


Cuap. I. 


FORE. - 109 


For he giveth you the former rain in due measure ; 
Yea, he causeth the heavy rain to descend for you — 
The former and the latter rain as before: 

24 So that the floors shall be full of grain, 


iar force and coherence of the words, 
mian-ns, and wipbaa min bY. 
The emphasis given to mi, by prefixing 
not only the article m, but also the de- 
terminating particle mx, shows that the 
prophet had some immediate and definite 
object in view, which we cannot imagine 
to have been any other than the autum- 
nal rain, which was indispensable any 
year, and more especially after such a 
season of drought, to prepare the ground 
for nourishing the seed. It must have 
been an object of universal and anxious 
desire, and has, in consequence, a high 
degree of importance and prominence 
allotted to it in the text. See on the 
force of rx the Lexicons of Lee and 
Gesenius. ‘The same consideration will 
account for the form, and the particular 
signification of © mpi1s> in this place, 
The > is to be taken adverbially, as point- 
ing out the rule or measure according to 
which the rain was to be spt, so that 
the meaning will be, in just pent: 
adequately, in the proportion suitable to 
the exigency of the case. p71, the root 
from which this noun is derived, signifies 
to be just, right ; to come up to certain 
claims, to be what a person or thing ought 
to be. Comp. Ley. xix. 36, where P7% 


- is used of weights and measures that 


were exact, or came up to the demands 
of the law. Some propose to render 
mpd, bountifully, but this would give 
the Chaldee rather than the Hebrew sig- 
nification. Ewald translates, the early. 
rain for justification, and explains it of 
the Jews being again accounted right- 
eous by God. To the objection of Hengs- 
tenburg, that if 4% in the first half of 
the verse does not designate a different 
divine benefit from 5572 in the second, 
an idle tautology will ensue, it is only 
necessary to reply, that the words occur 
in parallelism, and that in the second 
instance 75% is merely a resumption for 
the sake of dividing the ty3 mentioned 


immediately before into its two regular 
divisions, the former and the Jatter. ‘The 
term elsewhere used for the former or 
autumnal rain, which falls from the 
middle of October until the middle of 
December, is 75%, lit. waterer, being 
the Benoni Participle of mar, to dart, 
cast, or scatter, as drops of water. m™,4%, 
however, which is the Hiph. Participle 
of the same verb, does occur in the same 
acceptation, Ps. Ixxxiv. 7. Comp. my 
note on Hosea vi. 3, where dipta, the 
latter.or vernal rain is also explained. 
The reading 7,3, which is found in- 
stead of the former 71%, in twenty-three 
MSS., originally in eleven more, now in 
three, in the Jerusalem Talmud, and as 
Keri in the margin of two of De Rossi’s 
Codices, is in favor of the rendering 
rain, which is that of all the early ver- 
sions, but may possibly have originated 
in emendation, With respect to the 
latter occurrence of the word, there is no 


variety of reading. trys, Arab. pan 


corpus, et omne td quod longum, largum 
et profundum est ; Chald. the body: ap- 
plied to such rain as is heavy, or violent, 
and pours down as it were in a body. 
The verbs ym2, and 14551, are prophetic 
futures. To render jieeia, in the first 
month, would involve a contradiction, 
since only one of the two rains could 
happen in that month. It seems, there- 
fore, necessary to suppose an ellipsis of 5, 
the participle of comparison, and read 
“TN Is, as formerly, or as in former 
times. “Comp. Jer, i, 22; Jer. xxxiii. 11, 
where "2x 72> is similarly used ; and 
for vide , in the sense of former, 1 ‘Sana: 
xvii..30; Hagg. ii. 3. Thus the LXX. 
Syr. Vulg. Arab. One of Kennicott’s 
MSS. and perhaps another, reads 7738". 
The ellipsis of > is not infrequent in the 
Hebrew Scriptures. 

24, Here the happy results of the 
plentiful and seasonable rains are set 


110 ) SDI. 


Cuap. II, 


And the vats shall run over with new wine and oil. 

25 Thus he will make good to you the years 
Which the swarming locusts hath devoured, 

The licking locust, the consuming locust, and the gnawing locust, 
My great army which I sent against you. 
26 And ye shall eat plentifully and be satisfied, 
And praise the name of Jehovah your God, 
Who hath dealt wondrously with you: 
And my people shall never be ashamed. 

27 Then shall ye know, that I am in the midst of Israel, 
And that I, Jehovah, am your God, and none else ; 
And my people shall never be ashamed. 

28 And it shall come to pass, afterwards, 

That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; 


forth. The 4 in sxb%5, is consequential. 
apr, comp. the Arab. ‘.) ms propulit, 


vii. Conj. impulsus fuit, fluxit, to cause 
to flow, or run over. For ap., see on 
Is. v. 2. i 

25. That the prophet has here in view 
the plague of locusts described in chap. i. 
cannot well be doubted. The names, 
though placed in a different order, are 
identical with those there specified, 
They are called God’s great army, a 
name still given to them by the Arabs. 
See on ver. 11. Though the scourge 
lasted only one year, yet as they not 
only destroyed the whole produce of 
that year, but also what was laid up in 
store for future years, there is no im- 
propriety in the plural form of tvzy, 
years. ‘The term is used metonymically 
for the produce and supply of years. 
The loss of these Jehovah promises to 
recompense or make good by not only 
furnishing the Jews with an abundance 
of temporal enjoyments, but affording 
them the delightful experience of his 
presence and favor as their covenant 
God. This promise is amplified in 
verses — 

26, 27, In which the future prosperity 
of the Jewish church is described in 
terms, which obviously characterize the 
period which succeeded that of the 
Babylonish captivity. The divine re- 
compense was not merely to cover the 


evils sustained by the ravages of the 
locusts; it was to extend to those which 
both the Assyrians and the Chaldeans 
were to inflict upon the nation. This 
interpretation is confirmed by what im- 
mediately follows respecting the out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit. By God’s 
being in the midst of his people, is 
meant the special manifestation of his 
presence in the communications of his 
favor. ‘The resumption of *23 in “INL, 
forms a beautiful anadiplosis. * 

28, 29. The prophet now proceeds to 
predict the impartation of richer gifts in 
future times than those temporal bless- 
ings which had just been promised to 
the Jews. 4s— "ns, afterward, LXX. 
pera Taba, Hengstenberg would place 
in antithesis with 43x43, ver. 23, which 
he renders jirst; but the latter phrase 
has reference to what had already taken 
place, and was not future to the time of 
the prophet. JIN though indefinite, 
is nearly equivalent in force to n™ns 
nov. , Is. ii, 2, as appears from its hay- 
ing ‘been rendered by the apostle Peter 
év rais éoxdras tuépas, in the last 
days, Jarchi, sad mys, in futurity ; 
Abenezra, mmison met bp sae 4 sor 
(> DN “es Gon nv “1 Tnsd Aen 
Mansa mm pa FD Mme mee mod 
pen. ‘Rabbi Jeshua saith, All this 
is a prophecy of the future; and Rabbi 
Moses the priest saith, If so, why does 
he say after.this? but it is the same as, 


EEE 


ee es 


ee 


“iin tall 


a” OS ee 


Tee ese ae ee 


Cuap. IL. 


JOEL. 111 


And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
Your old men shall dream dreams, 
Your young men shall see visions ; 

29 And even upon the male and the female servants 
I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 


and it shall come to pass in the latter 
days ;”’ in which interpretation Kimchi 
concurs, adding, "> pmyt “yasw “Bd 
sbr asin mny ox oe Saw apa 
sspd asunmi Iiwn yD maby mT] 
WINy par RI MIT Mxp cane das 
Sim7 9 wenn xb medbw my om 
mst Vann med 1D sosaw Mw ma" 
mim? rs, “ Because it is said, And ye 
shall know that I am in the midst of you. 
What he says is, Now ye know, but 
not with a perfect knowledge, for ye 
will again commit sin before me; but 
after this knowledge there shall come a 
time when ye shall know me with a 
perfect knowledge, and shall sin no 
more, namely, in the days of the Mes- 
siah.” That the two phrases are iden- 
tical in meaning, clearly appears from 
a comparison of Jer. xlviii. 47, with 
xlix. 6. See on Is. ii. 2. ‘jE8 signifies 
to pour out, to communicate in a plentiful 
and abundant manner, and is here used 
with the greatest propriety to denote the 
larger and richer supplies of divine in- 
fluence, which were to be afforded to 
the church under the gospel dispensation. 
ran, spirzz, means here the influences and 
gifts of the Holy Spirit, as in numerous 
other passages, in which the Spirit is 
said to be put, given, etc.; and these 
communications are described in lan- 
guage which shows that they were both 
to be more general and more special in 
their character. In a more -general 
point of view, they were to be bestowed 
upon “ta—b>, all flesh, i. e. mankind 
generally, without distinction of nation or 
country. To restrict this phrase to the 
Jews, as is done by Abenezra, Kimchi, 
Adbo, Hitzig, and others, is irreconcilable 
with Scripture usage, according to which 
it constantly signifies mankind gener- 
ally, or the whole human race; just as in 


Arabic, Ld.3 and ,Lits| signify homo, 
pear 3. 


humanum genus, and Adam is called 


pol wv , the father of flesh, i. e. of 


mankind. Credner would have the 
phrase to include the animal creation, 
than which no construction could be 
more preposterous in such connection, 
or more at variance with other passages 
in which the communication of the in- 
fluences of the Spirit are limited to the 
human family. ‘The influence, of which 
universality is here predicated, is the 
saving energy which is exerted by the 
Holy Spirit, in commencing, carrying 
on, and consummating the work of 
grace in the souls of men. It accom- 
panies the presentation of divine truth 
to the mind, and removes the obstacles 
which the force of innate depravity 
opposes to the reception of the gospel. 
See my Lectures on Divine Inspiration. 
pp- 525-530. Besides the influence 
which was thus to be vouchsafed for the 
purposes of salvation, the prophet spe- 
cifies that which should be more limited 
in its communication, consisting in the 
miraculous endowment of a certain 
number of Jews, of different classes 
and conditions, with the knowledge of 
divine things, and the ability infallibly 
to communicate them to others. The 
persons on whom these gifts were to be 
conferred are their “sons and daugh- 
ters ;” their “aged men,” and their 
“youths ;” their “male” and * fe- 
male servants ;”” terms which are mani- 
festly designed to teach that their 
bestowment was to embrace persons of 
different classes, ranks, and conditions 


of life. s22, Arab. Ls, indicavit, an- 
nunciavit, Eth. INN: locutus est, 


tT NP = vaticinatus est, predixit, is 
used not merely to denote the foretelling 


112 


JOEL. 


Cuap. I, 


30 And I will show prodigies in the heavens and in the earth, 
Blood and fire, and columns of smoke. 
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, 


And the moon into blood, 


of the future events, but to express the 
giving of utterance to divine truth under 
a miraculous impulse, or the pretending 
to such impulse, whether the utterance 
was made in the way of direct com- 
munication, as was the case when the 
prophets addressed their hearers, or by 
the rehearsal or singing of sacred hymns 
under extraordinary divine impulse, as 
when Miriam sung at the Red Sea, 
Exod. xv. 20, 21; or when the sons of 
the prophets and Saul prophesied, 1 Sam. 
x. 5, 6, xix. 20-24. Comp. Acts xix. 6, 
xxi. 9; 1 Cor. xi. 4, 5, xiv. 1, 5, 6, 22, 
24, 31, 39 ; which passages furnish strik- 
ing illustrative examples of the fulfil- 
ment of the prophecy of Joel. See also 
1 Chron. xxv. 1-3; and Mede’s works, 
Book I. Discourse xvi. That we are 
fully warranted to interpret it of the 
extraordinary supernatural gifts which 
were vouchsafed in the apostolic age, is 
placed beyond doubt by its allegation by 
Peter, in justification of the phenomenon 
which took place on the day of Pente- 
cost. totrd éori, this is the fact pre- 
dicted by Joel, Acts ii. 16. The quo- 
tation was the more apt, since the words 
of the prophet had just been read in the 
pentecostal service of the Synagogue. 
See my Biblical Researches and Travels 
in Russia, p. 326. niv'>n, dreams, and 

niosrn, visions, belonged to the different 
modes in which God revealed his will 
to the prophets. Numb. xii. 6; 1 Sam. 
xxviii. 6, 15; Jer. xxiii. 25-28 ; Dan. 
vii. 1, 2. See my Lectures on Inspi- 
ration, pp. 147-165. Though no ex- 
press mention is made of dreams in the 
apostolic writings, yet repeated reference 
is to visions. See acts ix. 10, 12, x. 3, 
17, xi. 5, xvie 9, xviii. 9, xxvi. 19; 
2 Cor. xii. 1; Rev. ix.17. tan, and even, 
indicates a rise in the prophecy, which 
‘was intended to exclude none, not even 
the lowest and most despised “ servants,” 
from a participation in the large bestow- 


ment of divine influence. In beautiful 
harmony with this feature of the pro- 
phecy is the special recognition of of 
mrwxol, the poor, in the New Testament. 
The repetition"man mes FAB Uy I will pour 
out my Spirit, shows, that the influence 
of which, in general, they were to be 
partakers, was not merely that which 
consisted in the miraculous gifts, but also 
that ordinary and saving influence which . 
is experienced by all believers. What 
incontrovertibly proves that the prophecy 
includes both a more ordinary, and a 
more extraordinary or miraculous divine 
agency, is the extension given to it by the 
apostle Peter, Acts ii. 38, 39; where he 
teaches that it was to comprehend * all 
that are afar off,” z. e. the Gentiles, 
‘“‘even as many as the Lord our God 
shall call.” 

30, 31. In connection with this period 
of the rich enjoyment of divine influence, 
Joel introduces one of awful judgment, 
called as usual 7459 tn, the day of Jeho- 
vah, the precursors of which he describes 
in very alarming language. ‘That the 
destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish 
polity is intended, most interpreters are 
agreed ; but there exists a diversity of 
opinion respecting the character of the 
language, some taking it literally, as 
setting forth physical prodigies, such as 
those which Josephus relates to have 
taken place before the destruction of 
Jerusalem, and tremendous massacres 
and conflagrations in different parts of 
the country; while others’ maintain 
that it is symbolical, and consequently 
is to be figuratively explained. The 
latter position is more in accordance 
with the style of prophecy, in which we 
not only find a fixed set of symbols, but 
also, very frequently, an accumulation 
of images is introduced for the purpose 
of producing a more powerful effect on 
the mind. See on Is. xiii, 10, xxxiv. 
3--5. The heavens and the earth, 


Cuap. II. 


JOEL. 


113 


Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. 


32 And it shall come to pass, 


That whosoever shall call’ pon the name of Jehovah shall be 


delivered: 


For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be the escaped, 


therefore, mean the political world, with 
its civil and religious establishments ; 
the sun and moon, the higher and supe- 
rior ruling powers; while the other 
images are employed to denote the 
disastrous prognosticatory changes that 
were to happen in relation to both. 
Comp. Matt. xxiv. 29; Mark xiii. 24, 25 ; 
Luke xx. 25-27, where the subject is 
the same as that exhibited by Joel, and 
the symbolical language in a great mea- 
sure parallel. Similar images are used 
by pagan writers, when describing the 
forerunners of civil wars, as, for instance, 
Lucanus, Pharsal. lib. ver. 529 :— 


“c 





Super igne minaces 
Prodigiis terras implerunt, thera, 


pontum. 

Ignota obscure viderunt sidera noc- 
tes, 

Ardentemque polum flammis, cceloque 
volantes, 

Obliquas per inane faces, crinemque 
timendi. 

Sideris, et terris mutantem regna 
cometen. 

Fulgura fallaci micuerunt crebra se- 
reno, 

Et varias ignis denso dedit aére for- 
mas.” 


pnb‘, prodigies, whatever objects are 
unusual, portentous, or miraculous, in 
their character. ‘The word is most prob- 
ably a derivative from m5", Arab. Conj. iii. 


ss eminuit, to be conspicuous, admi- 


rable, wonderful. UXX. répara. It 
frequently occurs in combination with 
D§rs onueia, signs. mina n ’ only occurs 
once besides, and, as here, in construc- 
tion with 73, viz. Song iii. 6; where, 
however, nineteen MSS. and originally 
another read mi-%am, without the Yod, 
which is doubtless the more correct or- 
thography, the Yod having been inserted 


15 


as a help to the pronunciation. There 
can be little doubt that it is derived from 
min, to be erect, whence “727 the palm- 
tree, from its tall and erect growth. 
Comp. the Chaldee mam, @ column of 


smoke; yarn, Arab. ype and 
8) wos, turris ; and “%ar, to rise like 


a column. The phrase will, therefore, . 
be equivalent to 72» “1%2z, of which we 
have the singular yw» 727, Jud. xx. 40. 
LXX. arplda carvot ; but in Song iii. 6, 
oreAéxn Kamvov. Vulg. vaporem fumi. 

Targ. 4227 YAU, columns of smoke, the 
singular of which is used Jud. xx. 40. 


Tance. : RAS y!! eye odtf Fdes esl, 


pillars of smoke ascending up. Those 
who are familiar with the account given 
by Josephus of the disorders, convulsions, 
excesses, and rebellions, which preceded 
the subversion of the Jewish state, will 
readily admit, that the figurative lan- 
guage here employed most appropri- 
ately sets forth the awful circumstances 
of the inhabitants of Palestine at that 
period. To render more prominent the 
tremendous nature of the final judg- 
ment of the Jews, when their city and 
polity were destroyed, it is not merely 
called pin Bi, but d4tan min oP 
sata, the great and fearful “day y of 
Jehovah ; terms which are employed 
by the prophet Malachi, iv. 5, (Heb. 
iii. 23,) in reference to the same 
event. 

32. The phrase min ns SP, usually 
means to evoke Jehovah according to his 
true character, and designates such as 
he would regard in the light of accep- 
table worshippers; but on comparing 
the quotation of the words with direct 
reference to our Saviour, Rom. x. 13, 
with Acts ix. 14, 1 Cor. i. 2, it appears 


114 


JOEL. 


Cuap. II, 


According as Jehovah hath promised, 
Together with those that are left, 


Whom Jehovah shall call. 


to be here employed as a periphrasis for 
those Jews who should embrace the faith 
of the Messiah, and render to him as 
min, Jehovah, the same supreme worship 
which had been rendered to God by their 
pious ancestors. From the passage just 
quoted from the Acts, it is clear that the 
disciples of Christ were characterized as 
invokers of his name, i. e. as his wor- 
shippers, before they were cailed Chris- 
tians. The prophecy contains a gracious 
promise, that, however terrible might be 
the final catastrophe in which the un- 
believers should perish, provision would 
be made for the safety of those who be- 
lieved in the Messiah. And church his- 
tory records its fulfilment; for, on the 
approach of the Roman army, the chris- 
tian inhabitants of Jerusalem took to 


flight, in compliance with the Saviour’s _ 


warning, and retiring to Pella, on the 
eastern side of the river Jordan, found 
there a safe asylum, while the devoted 
city was being besieged and destroyed. 
— od mev GAAX Kal Tod Aaod Tijs év ‘lepo- 
godvmos exxAnolas, KaTd tia xpnopdy 
trois avTdd: Soxiwors 8: Gronaddpews 
SoSévra mpd Tod woA€uov, petavacrivar 
Ths ToAews, kal twa THs Tepalas médw 
Oikely KexeAevopévov. TléAAay abthy dvo- 
patovow év 4% Tav eis Xpirroy wem- 
orevxdtwy amd ris ‘lepovcaAhu peTwxio- 
pévwv, x. T. A. Euseb. lib. iii. cap. v. 
mute, is a collective noun, signifying 
those who have escaped ; in other words, 
h ev ‘lepororduos éxxanola, the church 
in Jerusalem,” as Eusebius phrases it in 


the above quotation, who not only made 
their escape from the impending calamity, 
but from the “ untoward generation ” to 
which they had belonged, Acts ii. 40; 
Is. iv. 3; so that the meaning is, not that 
there should continue to be deliverance 
for those who remained in Zion and Je- 
rusalem during the infliction of the 
punishment, but that those who resided 
there should make their escape from it, 
having previously been delivered from 
the condition of those on whom it was 
inflicted. The words min* “738 "UND, 

refer to the promise just made. =i baat wl 
together with those that have been left, 


from 4%, Arab. Orit, aufugit, vaga- 
tusque fuit, dy Li, and Og, aufu- 


gens, to flee, make one’s escape, survive 
a slaughter, or any other calamity. The 
reference seems not to be to converted 
Gentiles, as Schmidius, Micheelis, Holz- 
hausen, and others interpret, but to those 
Jews who did not perish in the national 
judgments, but were called into the 
church of Christ. sp, as employed in 
the last clause of the verse, signifies fo 
call, in the sense of effectually prevailing 
upon any one to choose and _ participate 
in the blessings of the divine kingdom. 
Comp. Kadéw, as used by Paul, Rom. 
viii. 28, 30, ix. 24; 1 Thess. ii, 12. 
sip, the Participle here denotes the 
future. 


Cuap. II. 654. 115 


CHAPTER III. 


In this chapter the prophet returns from the parenthetic view which he had exhibited of 
the commencement of the Christian dispensation, and the overthrow of the Jewish polity, 
to deliver predictions respecting events that were to transpire subsequent to the Baby-~ 
lonish captivity, and fill up the space which should intervene between the restoration of 
the Jews, and the first advent of Christ. He announces the judgment to be holden on 
their enemies after the return to Judea, 1, 2; specities the reasons why they were to be 
punished, and expressly mentions by name the neighboring nations of Tyre, Sidon and 
Philistia, 3-6: promises the restoration of those Jews whom these states had sold into 
slavery, while they are threatened with slavery in return, 7,8; summons the nations to 
engage in the wars in which they were to be destroyed, 9-15; shows, that since these con- 
vulsions were brought about by the providence of Jehovah, whose earthly throne was at 
Jerusalem, his people had no ground for alarm, and would experience his protection, 16, 
17; predicts times of great prosperity to them, 18; and concludes with special denuncia- 
tions against Egypt and Idumea, with whose fate is placed in striking contrast the pro- 
tracted existence of the Jewish polity, 19-21. 





1 For, behold! in those days, and at that time, 
When I shall reverse the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 


2 I will gather all the nations, 


And bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
And will plead with them there, 


1, 2. 8° NVI Menn p23, Is a 
double mode of expression, employed to 
give greater prominence to the period. 
That the “ days and time”’ here specified, 
are not identical with the period spoken 
of in the last five verses of the preceding 
chapter, is evident from their being con- 
nected by the relative conjunction “ws, 
with the following words, which relate 
to the restoration of the Jewish state. 
"5, at the beginning of the verse, is pro- 
perly rendered for, and refers back to 
chap. ii. 21-27, in which verses times 
of great temporal prosperity are prom- 
ised to the Jews. With this prosperity 
was intimately connected the punishment 
of the nations by which they had been 
afflicted ; and, accordingly, such punish- 
ment forms the subject of the present 
chapter. Instead of anzix,, the Keri sub- 
stitutes 2208 , in which it is supported by 


twenty-five of Kennicott’s MSS.; but 
the frequent occurrence of nia¥v aw, in 
which the Kal form is to be taken causa- 
tively, shows that there was no necessity 
for the emendation. See Ps. xiv. 7, 
liii. 7, exxvi. 7; Is. lii. 8. Some in- 
terpret the phrase of a general restora- 
tion to circumstances of prosperity, with- 
out any reference to previous circum- 
stances of actual captivity, as in the case 
of Job xlii. 10; but considering its 
common application to the return from 
Babylon, and the express mention of the 
scattering of the nation among the 
heathen, ver. 2, it seems more natural to 
refer it to the same event in this place. 
That the restoration of the Jews from 
their present dispersion is meant, and 
that the judgments to be inflicted on the 
nations are those which are predicted, 
Rev. xvi. 14, 16, is rendered impossible 


116 


JOEL. 


Cuar. ILL 


On account of my people, and Israel mine inheritance, 
Whom they have scattered among the nations, 


And have divided my land ; 


8 And have cast lots for my people, 


And given a boy for an harlot, 
And sold a girl for wine, 
That they might drink. 


4 And truly, what are ye to me, O Tyre and Zidon! 


by the introduction of the Tyrians, Si- 
donians, Philistines, ete. verses 4 and 19, 
since these states all received their punish- 
ment prior to the advent,of Christ. By 
Stine prey, the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
some ihderatarid the narrow valley 
through which the brook Kedron flows, 
between the city of Jerusalem and the 
mount of Olives. To this valley or glen, 
in which is the celebrated burying-place 
of the Jews, the Rabbins have appro- 
priated the name, and maintain, that in 
it the.final judgment of the world is to be 
held ;— a conceit in which they have 
been followed by many Christian writers, 
as well as by the Mohammedans. Others 
suppose it to be a designation of the valley, 
otherwise called m272 py, the valley of 
blessing, 2 Chron. xx. 963 ‘but as neither 
of these localities at all comport with the 
magnitude of the subject treated of by 
the prophet, we have no alternative but 
that of considering the words, not as 
constituting a proper name, or the name 
of any specific locality, but as symbolical 
in their import, and designed to charac- 
terize the theatre of the bloody wars 
that took place after the Babylonish cap- 
tivity, by which the hostile nations con- 
tiguous to Judea had signal vengeance 
inflicted upon them. They literally sig- 
nify, the valley where Jehovah judgeth, 
and mean the scene of divine judgments. 
The term valley appears to have been 
selected on account of such locality 
being mentioned in Scripture as the 
usual theatre of military conflict. This 
view of the subject is supported by the 
Targ. in which the words are not re- 
tained, but translated so-= s:b2 “on, 
the plain of the distribution of judgment, 
and by the translation of Theodot. ry 


xépav tis xploews.. The nations to be 
punished are restricted, ver. 2, to such 
as should have scattered the Jews, and 
occupied their land. Comp. chap. ii. 17. 

3. The Jews were frequently treated 
in the most ignominious manner by their 
enemies. Such conduct is here affect- 
ingly set forth. That it was customary 
to cast lots for those who were taken 
captive, see Obad. ver. 11; Nah. iii. 10. 
The giving of a boy for a whore, does 
not mean the exchange of the one for 
the other, but the payment of the captive 
for an act of sensual indulgence ; just as 
the selling of a girl for wine, means 
giving her in compensation for a draught 
of it-. Comp. Gen. xxxviii. 17 ; comp. 
also Deut. xxii. 18, where =317 Vins, the 
hire of awhore, is coupled with stb> 5" nie, 


the price of a dog; and the Arabic proy- 
erb, Ay? Bast url, the son of a 


whore hired with oil. Meid. xciv. Char- 
den mentions that when the Tartars came 
into Poland, they carried off all the chil- 
dren they could, and, finding at length 
that they were not redeemed, sold them 
at the low price of a crown. In Min- 
grelia, he adds, they sell them for pro- 
visions, and for wine. 

4, Among the nations bordering on 
the country of the Jews, which had ren- 
dered themselves particularly obnoxious 
to the divine wrath, were those on the 
west, for which see on Is. xxiii. and 
xiv. 28. "> ons nn bai, and truly what 
are ye to me? Think ye ‘that I make any 
account of you? or that ye can success- 
fully oppose yourselves to me? The 
interrogation is altogether different in 
meaning, as it is in form, from the idiom 








Cuap. IIL. 


And all the coasts of Philistia ? 
Will ye retaliate upon me ? 


JOEL. 


117 


If, indeed, ye retaliate upon me, 
Speedily and swiftly I will bring your retaliation 


Back upon your own head. 


Because ye have taken away my silver and my gold; 


And my goodly objects of delight 
Ye have carried into your temples ;_ 


To the sons of the Javanites, 


And have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem 


That they might be removed far from their own border. 


7 
Whither ye have sold them ; 


bs} “b=, what have we in common? 
with which Kimchi compares it. nidod3, 
circuits, districts. Comp. Josh. xiii. a: 

where the word is rendered coasts in our 
version. ‘They were properly provinces, 
of which there were five in number, each 
governed by a W270, prince, or lord. %>5, 
all, before nid">3, expresses contempt. 

tx, is not here correlate with 3, in >MNoary 
but puts a fresh case for the sake of ar- 
gument. The case supposed, however, 
was true in fact. The interrogative 7 as- 
sumes. here the form of the article, as in 
several other places. See on Amos vy. 25, 
$123, signifies to do good or evil to any one; 
then to recompense him, either with good 
or evil; to reward, retaliate. The mean- 
ing here seems to be, that if these bor- 
dering states, taking advantage of certain 
untoward circumstances in the history of 
the Jews, attempted to revenge the vic- 
tories gained over them by the latter, 
they should be dealt with in the way of 
divine retaliation. Jehovah here speaks 
of what was done to his people as done 
to himself. Comp. Zech. ii. 8; Matt. 
xxv. 40. moma. Sp, is an asyndeton. 

Comp. Is. v. 26, where the order of the 
words is reversed. 

5. As inthe preceding verse God had 
identified himself with his people, so here 
he speaks of their property as his.. Some 
suppose the precious vessels belonging to 
the temple to be intended by *=2M 
b°sDn, but the articles of private property 


Behold! I will arouse them from the place 


most highly esteemed by the Jews are 
more probably meant ; since it does not 
appear that ever the enemies specified by 
Joel plundered the temple at Jerusalem, 
though express mention is made of the 
plunder of the royal palace by the Phi- 
listines, etc., 2 Chron. xxi. 17. Comp. 
Hos. xiii. 15; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19. It 
was customary to hang up or deposit in 
the idolatrous temples, as presents dedi- 
cated to the gods, certain portions of the 
spoils taken in war. Arrian, ii. 24. Cur- 
tius, iv. 2. 

6. 52497 72,3, the sons of the Javanites, 
i. e. the Grecians. Comp. vies "Axaav, 
of Homer; and see on Is. Ixvi. 19. 
Credner, Hitzig, and some others, think 
that the prophet refers to Javanites of 
Arabia Felix, mentioned Ezek. xxvii. 19; 
but the reasons they adduce in favor of 
their opinion are insufficient to establish 
the point. In Ezek. xxvii. 13, Javan is 
mentioned, along with Tubal and Me- 
shech, as trading in the persons of men 
with the merchants of Tyre. Slavery 
formed an important article of Pheenician 
commerce, and equally so of that carried 
on by the Greeks, to whom the former 
might easily convey the Jewish captives. 
So famous did the island of Delos become 
as aslave mart, that sometimes 10,000 
were bought and sold in a single day. 

7,8. m°x23, Sabeans ; Pococke’s Arab. 


MSS. ope Ass}, the people of Jemen. 


118 


JOEL. 


Cuap. III. 


And bring back your retaliation 


Upon your own head ; 


8 I will sell your sons and your daughters 
Into the hand of the sons of Judah, 


And they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation ; 


For Jehovah hath spoken it. 


3 


9  Proclaim ye this among the nations; 
Prepare war ; rouse the mighty ; 
Let all the warriors approach ; let them come up. 
10 Beat your coulters into swords, 
And your pruning-hooks into spears ; 
Let the feeble say, I am mighty. 
11 Hasten and come, all ye nations around, 


See on Is. lx. 6. As the Sabeans traded 
with India, it is not improbable that 
pin, distant, may be designed to include 
that part of the East; though it is said 
of the Queen of Sheba, that she came 
ex Tav mepdrwy Tis vis, Matt. xi. 42. 
This prophecy was fulfilled before and 
during the rule of the Maccabees, when 
the Jewish affairs were in so flourishing 
a state, and the Pheenician and Philistine 
powers were reduced by the Persian 
arms under Artaxerxes Mnemon, Darius 
Ochus, and especially Alexander and his 
successors. On the capture of Tyre by 
the Grecian monarch, 13,000 of the in- 
habitants were sold into slavery. When 
he took Gaza also, he put 10,000 of the 
citizens to death, and sold the rest, with 
the women and children, for slaves. 
Favorable, on the other hand, as he 
was to the Jews, there can be no doubt 
that he ordered the liberation of such of 
them as were captives in Greece. 
9. mst, chs, refers to what immediately 
follows: the assembling of the different 
nations, in order to engage in the wars 
in which, in succession, they were, as 
political states, to be subdued and perish. 
gap, is not simply to prepare, as Kimchi 
explains it, but to prepare by the use of 
religious rites and ceremonies, such as the 
heathen employed when they undertook 
a military enterprise. 
10. Here a state of things is presented 
to view, directly the opposite of what 


was to exist in the days of the Messiah, 
Is. ii. 4; Micah iv. 3. Such was to be 
the extent of the conflict, that, in the 
lack of a sufficient number of arms, the 
ordinary implements of husbandry would 
be converted into weapons. 





“ squalent abductis arva 
colonis, 

Et curve rigidum falces confiantur in 
ensem.”’ 


Virgil. Georg. i. 507. 
“Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila 
ligones, 
Factaque de rastri pondere cassis 
erat.” 
Ovid, Fast. i. 699. 


11. Bs, a drat Aey. in all probability 
the same in signification with wan, to 
hasten. 'The ancient versions follow the 
LXX., who render, cuvadpol(ecde. 


Arab. yils, vitam duxit, vixit ; hence 


the idea of Uiveliness, activity, agility, etc. 
nrizm, isthe Imperative in Hiphil ofp, 
to descend, go or come down. The place 
whither, is the scene of warfare, the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, implied in py, 
which with the = is frequently the same 
in signification with nv. The abrupt 
transition to Jehovah has a powerful 
effect. Whatever might be the individual 
views of those engaged in the conflict, 
they were the instruments of Divine 


Tre oe eee “a 


Oa ee ee rp 





Cuap. IIT. 


JOEL. 


119 


And gather yourselves together ; 
Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah! 
12 Let the nations be roused, let them come up 


To the valley of Jehoshaphat ; 


For there I will sit to judge all the nations around, 


13 Put ye in the sickle, for the 


harvest is ripe: 


Come, descend, for the wine-press is full, 


The vats run over ; 

For their wickedness is great, 
14 Multitudes! multitudes 

In the valley of decision ! 


For the day of Jehovah is near, 


wrath, and are on this account called the 
*‘ mighty ones” of Jehovah. Comp. Is. 


x. 5-7. 


12. To give prominence to the in- 
terest which God had in what was to 
take place, the metaphor is here changed 
into that of a judicial process, in which 
he acts as judge, and gives a just deci- 
sion against the enemies of his people. 
For yin pray, see on ver. 2. Here, 
as in that verse, the nations to be pun- 
ished were those 27351 , circumjacent to 
Judea. 

13. The prophet now employs meta- 
phors taken from the harvest and the 
vintage, which strikingly express the 
havoc and destruction effected by war: 
the one denoting the slaughter or cutting 
down of armies, and the other the effu- 
sion of their blood. The same images 
are similarly employed, Is. xvii. 5, 6, 
Ixiii, 2; Lam. i, 15; and especially 
Rey. xiv. 14-20. 3%, @ sickle, Arab. 


Nsriv, Syr. tw. In Arab. the root, 


s3 signifies to cut. The sickles of 
the East, as represented on Egyptian 


- monuments, pretty much resembled ours, 


only some of them were smaller, and 
had more the appearance of a knife 
hooked at the end. 4, from 4:, ¢o 
descend, some take to be used here in the 


acceptation of the Arab. ‘s®) » caleavit. 


Thus the LXX. wareire. But as in 


order to tread the grapes it was necessary 
to go down into the wine-press, it seems 
better to abide by the ordinary significa- 
tion of the Hebrew verb, and to consider 
the action of treading to be implied, 
rather than expressed. At the close of 
the verse the metaphor is dropped, and 
the cause of the thing signified is boldly 
presented to view. 

14, Ers98n p27,» multitudes, multi- 
tudes, a Hebraism for immense multitudes. 
This rendering is preferable to that of 
tumults, In the preceding verses, the 
nations are called upon to assemble, and 
here the prophet, beholding them con- 
gregated in obedience™to the summons, 
breaks out into an appropriate exclama- 
tion in regard to their number. yann, 
Piscator, the Geneva English, Calvin, 
Leo Juda, Micheelis, Justi, Holzhausen, 
and Credner, take in the sense of thresh- 
ing. Kimchi, Tanchum, Abulwalid, 
Newcome, and some others, render ex- 
cision; but the LXX. Theodot. Syr. 
Targ. Theodoret, Dathe, Rosenmiiller, 
Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and 
Fiirst, translate the word by decision or 
judgment, which seems more in keeping 
with the name of the valley, and the 
idea of a judicial process, set forth ver. 
12. Comp. for the acceptation ¢o de- 
termine, decide, as attaching to the verb 
vin, 1 Kings xx. 40; Is. x. 22. The 
meaning is the decision or doom of the 
nations to which the prophecy refers, 
The repetition of yninn p32, heightens 
the effect. 


120 JOEL. 


In the valley of decision. 


Cuap. ILI. 


15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, 
And the stars shall withdraw their shine. 
16 For Jehovah shall roar out of Zion, 
And utter his voice from Jerusalem, 
And the heavens and the earth shall shake ; 
But Jehovah is a refuge for his people, 
A stronghold for the sons of Israel. 
17 And ye shall know that I Jehovah am your God, 
Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; 


Then shall Jerusalem be holy ; 
Foreigners shall invade her no 
18 And it shall come to pass in 
That the mountains shall drop 


more. 
that day, 
new wine, 


And the hills shall flow with milk, 


15. A figurative mode of representing 
the removal of the political rulers of the 
world. Comp. chap. ii. 10, 31. 

16. These words, as Chandler properly 
remarks, seem to intimate very plainly, 
that at least part of the judgments here 
threatened to be exerted upon the 
neighboring nations, should be executed 
by the Jews themselves. ‘They doubtless 
refer to the victories obtained by Matta- 
thias, and his sons the Maccabeans. As 
king of the Jewish nation, Jehovah had 
his residence in Jerusalem, whence he 
caused his power to be exerted to the 
discomfiture of his enemies, and the de- 
liverance and protection of his people. 
Comp. Ps. xviii. 13; Hab. iii. 10, 11. 
ssw, to roar, is properly used of the lion, 
but is metaphorically applied to God, to 
express the terrible majesty with which 
he encounters his foes, Comp. Jer. 
xxv. 30; Amos i. 2. iii. 8. 

17. ¥5, is here, as in Is. lii, 6. lx. 16; 
Hos. ii. 20, to be taken in the accep- 
tation of experiencing, knowing by ex- 
perimental proofs of the divine kindness. 
This the Jews did in the deliverances 
effected on their behalf, after the return 
from the captivity, especially on the 
death of Antiochus Epiphanes, and in 
the enjoyment of their national and re- 
ligious privileges, till the termination of 


their polity. That the strong language 
at the close of the verse does not imply 
a state of immunity from invasion, to 
which there was absolutely to be no end, 
will appear on comparing Is. lii. 1, and 
Nah. i. 15. See my note on the former 
of these passages. From the death of 
Antiochus till the coming of the Messiah, 
no hostile power should take possession 
of the holy city. ‘To express the perfect 
immunity from idolatry, by which Jeru- 
salem should be characterized, 377, hodt- 
ness in the abstract, is used. Comp. 
Obad. 17. By nm, strangers, or bar- 
barians, foreign enemies are meant. 

18. A splendid figurative represen- 
tation of the extraordinary prosperity 
to be accorded to the Jewish people 
after the destruction of their enemies. 


Thus Tanchum in Pococke, By Leia! 


ols, wos) 800, <me- 


taphorical language, denoting abundance 
of plenty and blessings.” Comp. Is. 
xxx. 23-26, xliv. 3, and especially Amos 
ix. 13. 


‘« Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nec- 
taris ibant, 
Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.” 
Ovid. Metam. i, 111. 


ap a i 


ee 


ee a a a ee a ee ae 


ee ee 


Cuar. II, JOEL. 
And all the channels of Judah shall flow with water, 
And a fountain shall go forth from the house of Jehovah, 
And water the valley of Acacias. 

19 Egypt shall become desolate, 
And Edom a desolate wilderness, 


121 


ae PA ey, ar ipetiitign F 


For the violence done to the sons of Judah, 
Because they shed innocent blood in their land, 
20 But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, 
And Jerusalem to successive generations, 
21 And I will regard their blood as innocent, 


Kal tore 5) xapay meydAnyv Seds ay- 
Spdot ddr 

Kal yap yi Kal Sévdpa Kal s&owera 
Speuuata vyalns 

Adcovow kapmby tov dAnSwov dvSpe- 
Toit 

Otvov Kal méArtos yAuKéws, AevKod TE 
yaAakTos 

Ka) oirov, dep ort Bpotois KaAALoTOV 
amdvT wv. 


Sibyl. Orac. 


mrusn Sra, the valley of Shittim, i. e. 
Acacias. ‘There was a place of this name 
in the country of Moab, Num. xxv. l, 
xxxili. 49; Josh. ii. 1; but most inter- 
preters think that the valley is meant 
through which the Kidron flows to the 
Dead Sea. Consistency of interpretation 
requires us to understand this part of 
the verse figuratively of the most desert 
and arid spots, such as the acacia is fond 
of. Fertility was to go forth from the 
presence of Jehovah into the whole land. 
Viewed in this light, there is no incon- 
gruity in representing the water as ex- 
tending even across the Jordan, however 
impossible it might be as a physical phe- 
nomenon. Comp. Ezek. xlvii. 1-12; 
Zech. xiv. 8. 

19. The wrongs done to the Jews 
by the Egyptians and Idumeans, which 
the prophet here declares were to be 
avenged, were those committed at dif- 
ferent times after the captivity. Pales- 
tine suffered greatly during the wars 
between the Syrian and Egyptian kings, 
especially in the reign of Ptolemy Epi- 
phanes, when they exposed themselves 

16 


to the indignation of that king by 
siding with Antiochus the Great. In 
the time of Cleopatra also, her son La- 
thyrus gained a victory over the army 
of Alexander Janneus, in which the Jews 
lost upwards of thirty thousand men; 
and who, to increase the terror of his 
name, massacred the women and children, 
cut their bodies in pieces, and boiled the 
flesh. The Idumeans, though less for- 
midable, never omitted any favorable 
opportunity that offered of showing their 
hostility to the Jews. The condition to 
which both these countries were speedily 
reduced, and in which they have re- 
mained to the present day, verifies the 
prediction here delivered. Instead ° of 

manos, a number of MSS. exhibit the 
synonymous mev>.— HTM? 122 OBn, 
the violence of the sons of Judah, is the 
Genitive of object, meaning the violence 
done ¢o them. Comp. Obad. 10. m"P2 is 
spelt s*p2 here and Jonah i. 14; but in 
the present text, nine of Kennicott’s 
MSS. and four of De Rossi’s, with eight 
more originally, read *-3. Among these 
are four Spanish MSS., two of which 
De Rossi characterizes as accuratissimi. 
The pronominal affix in pzs"3, refers to 
the Jews spoken of immediately before. 

20. sum, is used passively, as in Is. 
xiii, 20. pdt» and “471515, are to be 
limited by the subject to which they are 
predicated. ‘Thus the state of desolation 
during the seventy years’ captivity in 
Babylon, is said to be tbiv, for ever, 
Jer. xviii. 16. 

21. Inthe words *n>p> 85 bt on ps5, 


122 


JOEL. 


Cuap. IIT, 


Which I have not regarded as innocent ; 
And Jehovah shall dwell in Zion. 


there is an ellipsis of AES, after pio, the 
affix in which refers to the J ews, not to 
their enemies. Almost all the inter- 
preters have stumbled at "mp3, the verb 
here employed, but they have generally 
got over the difficulty, by giving to it the 
signification of *mrap> , I have avenged — 
a signification wikth nowhere attaches to 
it in the Hebrew Bible. For the dif- 
ferent explanations see Pococke. ps, 


Arab. sd: purus, mundus fuit, ii. and 


iv. mundavit. Syr. in Pael, sacrificavit, 
Hibavit. In Niph. the Heb. verb. signifies 


to be morally pure, to be Sree from pun- 
ishment ; in Piel, as here, to regard, pro- 
nounce, or treat as innocent, to pardon. 
The words were doubtless suggested by 
"73 C1 in the preceding verse, and are 
to be rendered, I will regard their blood 
as innocent, which I have not regarded as 
innocent ; i, e. I will pardon those whom 
I have treated as guilty. My people, 
whom I have punished on account of 
their apostasies, I will henceforth regard 
with favor and love. The affix 5 in 
Det, SEU to the same in psqs, 
ver. 19. — >, the Participle used with 
futurity of aidianiioe, 


Se 


AMOS. 





PREFACE. 


Amos, (Heb. 07%, burden, a word purely Hebrew, and not of Egyptian 
origin, and the same as Amasis or Amosis, as Gesenius conjectures,) was, 
as we learn from the inscription, a native of Tekoah, a small town in the 
tribe of Judah, at the distance of about twelve miles south-east of Jerusalem. 
The country round being sandy and barren, was destitute of cultivation, 
and fit only to be occupied by those addicted to pastoral life. Among these 
our prophet was originally found; and, though it was counted no disgrace 
in ancient times, any more than it is at the present day in Arabia, to follow 
this occupation, kings themselves being found in it, (2 Kings iii. 4,) yet there 
is no reason to suppose that Amos belonged to a family of rank or influence, 
but the contrary. No mention is made of his father; but too much stress 
is not to be laid upon this circumstance. That he had been in poor circum- 
stances, however, appears from the statement made chap. vii. 14; from 
which also it is incontrovertible, that no change of circumstances intervened, 
which may be supposed to have been more favorable to mental culture, but 
that he was called at once to exchange the life of a shepherd for that of a 
prophet. 

Though a native of the kingdom of Judah, he discharged the functions of 
his office in that of Israel — a fact which is to be accounted for, not, as Ber- 
tholdt conjectures, on the ground of some personal relations, but by an ex- 
press Divine commission to occupy it as the scene of his labors. Eichhorn 
ingeniously supposes the reasons of his selection to have been, that the ap- 
pearance of a foreign prophet was much more calculated to excite attention 
than that of a native, and that such a prophet was more likely to command 
respect than any belonging to a kingdom in which impostors and fanatics 
abounded. 

The time at which he prophesied is stated in general terms, chap. i. 1, to 
have been in the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam IL, king 
of Israel, the former of whom reigned B. & 81-759, and the latter B. c. 
825-784, but in which of these years he was called to the office, and how long 
he continued to exercise it, we are not told. Even if any dependence could 
be placed upon the Jewish tradition, Joseph. Antiq. ix. 10, 4, and Jerome 
on Amos i. 1, that the earthquake mentioned here, and Zech. xiv. 5, took 
place when Uzziah attempted to usurp the sacerdotal functions, we should 
still be unable to fix the exact date, since it is uncertain in what year the at- 
tempt was made. 

That he was contemporary with Hosea, appears not only from the dates 


124 PREFACE TO AMOS. 


assigned in both their books, but from the identical state of affairs in the 
kingdom of the ten tribes, which they so graphically describe. Whether he 
flourished also in the days of Isaiah and Micah cannot be determined. 

As we have already found, from the prophecy of Hosea, idolatry, with its 
concomitant evils, effeminacy, dissoluteness, and immoralities of every des- 
cription, reigned with uncontrolled sway among the Israelites in the reign of 
Jeroboam the son of Joash. It is chiefly against these evils that the denun- 
ciations of Amos are directed. 7 

The book may properly be divided into three parts: First, sentences pro- 
nounced against the Syrians, the Philistines, the Pheenicians, the Edomites, 
the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Jews, and the Israelites, chapters i. and ii. 
Second, special discourses delivered against Israel, chapters iii—vi. Third, 
visions, partly of a consolatory, and partly of a comminatory nature, in 
which reference is had both to the times that were to pass over the ten 
tribes, previous to the coming of the Messiah, and to what was to take place 
under his reign, chapters vii.—ix. 

In point of style, Amos holds no mean place among the prophets. The 
declaration of Jerome, that he was imperitus sermonie, has not been justified 
by modern critics. On the contrary, it is universally allowed that, though 
destitute of sublimity, he is distinguished for perspicuity and regularity, em- 
bellishment and elegance, energy and fulness. His images are mostly orig- 
inal, and taken from the natural scenery with which he was familiar; his 
rhythmus is smooth and flowing; And his parallelisms are in a high degree 
natural and complete. In description, he is for the most part special and 
local ; he excels in the minuteness of his groupings, while the general vivid- 
ness of his manner imparts a more intense interest to all that he delivers. 
In some few instances, as in chapters iv. vi. and vii. the language approaches 
more to the prose style, or is entirely that of narrative. 

From chap. vii. 10-13, it appears that the sgene of his ministry was Bethel. 
Whether he left that place in consequence of the interdict of Amaziah, the 
priest, we know not. According to Pseudo-Epiphanius, he afterwards re- 
turned to his native place, where he died, and was ‘buried with his fathers ; 
but no dependence can be placed on the statement. 


CHAPTER I. 


AFTER a chronological and general introduction, ver. 1, 2, this chapter contains a heavy 
charge, accompanied with denunciations, against the Syrians of Damascus, 3-5; the 
Philistines, 6-8; the Phoenicians, 9, 10; the Idumeans, 11, 12; and the Ammonites, 


13-15. 





1 Tux words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoah, 
which he saw concerning Israel, in the days of Uzziah, king of 
Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of 

. Israel, two years before the earthquake. 


1. With the exception of the book of 
Jeremiah, that of Amos is the only one 
of the prophets commencing with *»22, 
«The words of —.”. Comp. however, 
Hag. i. 12.. The meaning is, the subjects 
or matters of oracular communication 
which he was employed by the prophetic 
Spirit to deliver, and which were now, 
under the influence of the same Spirit, 
committed to writing. Their divine ori- 
gin is clearly determined by what is add- 
ed, nin "vs, * which hesaw,” ¢. e. which 
‘were supernaturally presented to his men- 
tal vision. See on Is. i. 1. The preposi- 
tion 2 inO""752, does not denote dis- 
tinction, intimating that Amos was great- 
er in point of wealth or respectability 
than the rest of the shepherds, as Kimchi 
would have it, but simply that he was of 
their number ; he belonged to their con- 
dition of life, and followed their occu- 
pation. The phrase p-“pia mon ex- 
presses, in’ fact, nothing more than 577 
“p3. Comp. for similar usage 1 Sam. 
xix. 24; Ps. cxviii. 7; and the Arabic 


uple y= log. “pi occurs only 


here, and 2 Kings iii, 4. By some it is 


supposed to denote the shepherd or keeper 
of a species of sheep and goats, distin- 
guished by certain marks, and to be de- 
rived from “2, 40 prick, or mark with 
punctures, and so to distinguish by such 
marks. By others, it is more properly 
referred for illustration to the Arab. 


ARS, genus ovium deforme et brevipes, 
and lis, ovium, dS, appellatarum 


pastor. From the disesteem in which 
such animals were held, arose the proverb, 


Aesal, ue IH, more vile than the 


Nrxap. At the same time, as their wool 
was valuable, they were kept in great 
numbers. In both instances in which 
the term occurs, it seems to be used in a 
more general acceptation. Aq. év moip- 
votpdgos; Symm. and the fifth edit. 
év tois woméow. The explanation of 
Cyril is not inept : "Auds yéyover aimdaos 
Gvhp Kal momerixots éseol te SE vdpuors 
évreSpaupevos. The LXX. & ’Axxa- 
pelu, mistaking it for the name of a 
place where they supposed the prophet to 
have been when he received his Divine 


126 


2 And he said: 
Jehovah roareth from Zion, 


AMOS. 


Cuap. I, 


And uttereth his voice from Jerusalem ; 
The pastures of the shepherds mourn, 
And the summit of Carmel withereth; 


3 Thus saith Jehovah: 


For three transgressions of Damascus, 


communications, The ruins of ‘pn 


Arab. & ot, Teki’ a, Dr, Robinson 


found covering an extent of four or five 
acres ol an elevated hill, not steep, but 
broad at the top, about two hours distant 
from Bethlehem. On approaching it, he 
‘describes the landscape as rocky and 
sterile, yet rich in pasturage, as was tes- 
tified by the multitude of the flocks. 
(Palestine, ii. pp. 181, 182.) The sur- 
rounding region, especially that in the 
direction of the Dead Sea, is called 
zipr Ta) 2 Chron. xx. 20, and # &peuos 
@exwé, 1 Macc. ix. 33. In this pas- 
turing district, our prophet originally 
tended his flocks, and collected the syca- 
more figs. For the dates here specified, 
see the Introduction. The prophecy is 
specially directed against Israel, or the 
kingdom of the ten tribes, though that 
of Judah, and likewise several foreign 
states, are also expressly denounced. We 
possess no data by which to fix the year 
in which the earthquake, here mentioned, 
occurred. Zechariah, chap. xiv. 5, refers 
to it as having happened in the days of 
Uzziah, but he does not specify the year, 
According to Josephus, it took place on 
occasion of the invasion of the sacerdotal 
office by that monarch, Antiq. ix. 10, 4. 
As earthquakes are by no means un- 
common at Palestine, it must have been 
unusually severe to entitle it to the spe- 
ciality of reference here employed. Some 
interpret 22" of a civil commotion, but 
without sufficient ground, as the connec- 
tion Zech. xiv. 4, 5, shows. 

2. Zion, or Jerusalem, being the cen- 
tral point of the theocracy, was the spec- 
ial residence of Jehovah, to whom the 
judgments afterwards denounced, are, in 
highly figurative language, immediately 
referred. 34%, commonly employed to 


express the roaring of the lion, is here 
used to set forth the awful character of 
those judgments. Dathe, stumbling at 
the boldness of the figure, renders, Jova 
ex Zione dira pronunciat ; thereby de- 
stroying the poetical force of the lan- 
guage, Comp. Jer. xxv. 30; Job xxxvii. 
4.7 inaday 3, marks the apodosis. For 
Dyan nana, comp. 82x min3, Ps. xxiii, 
2 bens, Micheelis, Justi, and others take 
to be the Carmel, now called by the Arabs 


Hons; Kurmul, which lies near Yutta, 


or Juttah, between two and three hours 
to the south of Hebron ; but though the 
mountainous region about that place was 
more in the proximity of the prophet, 
yet the established scripture reference to 
the fertility of the celebrated Mount 
Carmel in the tribe of Asher seems to 
entitle the latter to the preference. In 
fact, there does not appear to be any 
mountain deserving the name in the hill 
country of Judah. The hill of Maon, 
which is close by, is not less than two 
hundred feet higher than the site of the 
ruins of the castle of Kurmul. See 
Robinson, wt sup. pp. 193-200. Besides 
the identical phrase, bid mann, the 
summit of Carmel, which again occurs 
chap. ix. 3, in immediate connection 
with the sca, is employed in application 
to the western Carmel, 1 Kings xviii. 42. 

3. Here begins a series of minatory 
predictions against different states, which 
extends to chap. ii. 8, where it merges 
in a continued denunciation of judg- 
ments directed almost exclusively against 
the Israelites. Instead of proceeding at 
once to charge the ten tribes with the 
flagrant evils of which they had been 
guilty, Amos commences with the Sy- 
rians, and after exposing their wicked- 


Cuar. IL. 


AMOS. 


127 


And for four, I will not reverse it ; 

Because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron ; 
4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, 

And it shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. 


ness, and that of the Philistines, the 
Pheenicians,. the Edomites, the Ammo- 
nites, the Moabites, and the Jews, he 
comes to his proper subject, on which he 
dwells throughout the rest of the book. 
Having roused the indignation of those 
among whom he prophesied against sin 
as exhibited in others, he charges it 
home upon themselves. Each of the 
eight predictions is ushered in by the 
solemn mim} “ax M2, thus saith Jehovah ; 
and consists in part, in a repetition of 
the same symmetrical stanzas, with an 
intermixture of matter, varying according 
to the nature of the subjects treated of. 
Interpreters differ in regard to the precise 


meaning of the use made by our prophet 


of the numerals ¢hree and four. Similar 
formule are frequent in Hebrew. ' See 
Exod. xx. 5; Job v. 19, xxxili. 14, 29; 
Proy. xxx. 15, 18, 21; Eccles. xi. 2; 
Is, xvii. 6; Mic. v.4. Comp. the pis 
Kal terpdxis of Homer; the tergue qua- 
terque of Virgil; and the ¢er et guater of 
Horace. The notion, that the two num- 
bers are to be added, so as to bring out 
the perfect number seven, and thus to 
express the completeness or full measure 
of the iniquity, is not borne out by 
Hebrew usage. That the numbers are 
to be taken literally, as in Proy. xxx. 
where there is an enumeration of each 
of the particulars, is equally out of the 
question ; the specification of the prophet 
being, in each case, limited to a single 
act of wickedness. Nor can the con- 
struction be admitted, I have not pun- 
ished Damascus, etc. on account of three 
transgressions, but on account of a fourth 
I will punish her; since :22°'s 8}, ob- 
viously connects with both numerals, 
The only satisfactory mode of explication 
is, to regard the phrase as intensively 
proverbial, and designed to express mul- 
tiplied or repeated delinquencies, of which 
the last, as the most atrocious, is uni- 
formly described. The noun to which 


the suffix in tsa%dx relates, is not ex- 
pressed, either before or after the verb, 
on the principle, that the subject referred 
to would naturally suggest itself to the 
mind of the reader. It is anticipative: 
of the sentence of punishment delivered 
in the following verses. Comp. Num. 
xxiii. 20, in which is an ellipsis of the 
noun 7>")3, the idea of which is expressed 
by the verb. Bp. Lowth proposes to 
render, *I will not restore it ;’’ but with- 
out sufficient authority. many a5, “to 
reverse the captivity,” is the phrase em- 
ployed in such case. In the phrase, “I 
will not reverse,” is a litotes — the mean- 
ing being, “I will certainly execute.” 
For Damascus, which, as the metropolis, 
is put for the kingdom of Syria, see on 
Is, xvii. 1. The cruel treatment of the 
inhabitants of Gilead here referred to, is 
that to which they were subjected by 
Hazael and Benhadad, 2 Kings x. 32, 33. 
xiii. 8-7, both of which princes Amos 
mentions by name, ver. 4. It consisted 
in their being thrown before the thresh- 
ing sledges, the sharp teeth of iron in 
the rollers of which tore and mangled 
their bodies. See on Is. xxviii. 27, and 
comp. 2 Sam. xii. 31, where we find the 
same punishment inflicted by David, by 
the law of retaliation. mis zm, the LXX. 


render mploot oidnpois, and add unwar~ 
rantably, ras év yaorpl éxovoas ; Symm. 
and Theod. tpoxois oiinpots. wan, to 
thresh, is the very term used in the his- 
tory of the transaction, 2 Kings xiii. 7. 
Gilead comprehended the whole of the 
territory beyond the Jordan, belonging 
to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and 
the half tribe of Manasseh; and as it 
bordered on the kingdom of the Sy- 
rians, was particularly exposed to their 
attacks. , 

4, The Benhadad here mentioned was 
the son and successor of Hazael, and 
not the king of that name whom Hazael 
succeeded. Comp. 2 Kings viii. 7, 16, 


128 


AMOS. 


Cuap. I. 


5 I will also break the barrier of Damascus, 
And cut off the ruler from the valley of Aven, 
And the sceptre-holder from Beth-Eden, 
And the people of Syria shall go captive to Kir, 


Saith Jehovah. 
6 Thus saith Jehovah ; 


For three transgressions of Gaza, 
And for four I will not reverse it ; 
Because they effected a complete captivity 


To deliver it up to Edom, 


with xiii. 3, 24, A similar prediction 
was afterwards delivered by Jeremiah, 
chap. xlix. 27, from which and from 
Hos, viii. 14, it is evident «that the phra- 
seology employed by Amos here, and 
verses 7, 10, 12, 14, chap, ii. 2, 5, is not 
peculiar to that prophet. ; 

5. According to the testimony of a 
native, whom Michaelis consulted, there is 
a most delightful valley called Oon, about 
four hours distant from Damascus, to- 
wards the desert, which has given rise 
to a proverb, “Have you ever been in 


the valley of Oon?” meaning, Have you’ 


ever been in a place of delight? As, 
however, this has not been confirmed by 
any traveller, most expositors are inclined 
to refer the place to what is otherwise 
called 342257 mzp3, “the valley of Le- 


banon,” or eladl, el Bukd’a, between 


the ridges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. 
Here are the celebrated ruins of the tem- 
ple of Baalbec, the Syrian Heliopolis, to 
which the LXX. have expressly referred 
518, Aven, only pronouncing it j5s, On 
—éx medtov ‘OXy; just as they have ren- 
dered the latter word when it is employed 
to denote the city of the same name in 
Egypt, which was dedicated to the sun. 
The Hebrews in Palestine, to express 
their abhorrence of the idolatrous wor- 
ship practised at both places, pronounced 
the werd 43%, Aven, which properly sig- 
nifies nothingness, vanity, and hence an 
tdol, on account of its inutility. Comp. 
with the present passage Ezek. xxx. 17. 
24> does not here denote inhabitant, or 
inhabitants generally, but as the parallel 


stts upon, or occupies a throne —a judge, 
prince, or king — the person exercising 
authority in the district specified. For 
the latter phrase, the oxymroixos of 
Homer may be compared. 473 m3, Beth- 
Eden was, in all probability, the locality 
in the mountains of Lebanon, which 
Ptolemy, v. 15, calls Mapdde:cos ; where 
the royal family had a palace, and where 
one of its members usually resided. 
The name is still given to a delectable 
valley. to the west of Damascus. The 
Aram, or Syria, here referred to, is that 
of which Damascus was the capital. By 
“"~ , Kir, is meant the river and region 
of the Cyrus in Iberia, now called Kur. 
See on Is, xxii. 6; and for the accom- 
plishment of the prediction in the suc- 
cessful expedition of Tiglathpileser, king 
of Assyria, 2 Kings xvi. 9. The version 
of the LXX. is here extremely faulty, 
as the slightest comparison with the orig- 
inal will show. 


6. may, Arab. se i Ghuzzeh, Gaza, 


was the southernmost of the five princi- 
pal cities of the Philistines, which formed. 
the capitals of so many satrapies of the 
same names, It was situated at the dis- 
tance of about an hour's journey from 
the south-east coast of the Mediterranean, 
from which it was separated by low hills 
and tracts of sand. It was built upon a 
hill, and strongly fortified, as the name 
imports. The modern city is built partly 
on the hill, but mostly on the plain be- 
low ; and according to Dr. Robinson, con- 
tains a population of about 15,000 souls. 


wT ——, = 


Cuap. I. 


AMOS. 


129 


7 But I will send a fire into the wall of Gaza, 
And it shall devour her palaces ; 

8 And I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod, 

_ And the sceptre-holder from Ashkelon : 
And will turn back my hand upon Ekron. 
And the residue of the Philistines shall perish, 


Saith the Lord Jehovah. 
9 Thus saith Jehovah : 


For three transgressions of Tyre, 


It must have been a place of high an- 
tiquity, for its name occurs in the gene- 
alogical table, Gen. x.; and it occupied 
so commanding a position, that it formed 
the key to Palestine on the south. It 
stands here by synecdoche for the whole 
of Philistia. By mate riba, we are nei- 
ther to understand, with the LXX. aix- 
padwolay Tod Sadwudy; nor with Justi, 
“a holy or pious captivity ;” nor with 
Grotius and Michaelis, captivitatem pa- 
cificam ; but the immense number of cap- 
tives which were carried away from Judea 
in the reign of Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. 
The capture was indiscriminate and uni- 
versal; none escaped. Comp. for the 
phrase Jer. xiii. 19. What aggravated 
the guilt of the Philistines, was that they 
did not treat the Jews as prisoners of 
war, but sold them as slaves to the Edo- 
mites, who were their bitterest enemies, 
and would treat them with the utmost 
cruelty. They were doubtless conveyed 
to Petra, the great emporium of com- 
merce, and there sold to such as might 
purchase them. Comp. Joel iii. 4-6. 

7. os, fire, is here metaphorically used 
for war, in carrying on which, however, 
it is often employed as one of the most 
destructive elements. Comp. Num. xxi. 
28; Is. xxvi. 11. 

8. For the meaning of a4", see on 
ver. 5. Three others of the principal 
cities of the Philistines are now threat- 
ened, 147s, Ashdod, for which see on 


Is. xx. 1; ys>pds, Arab. pplims, 


Askelon, occupying a strong position on 


the top of a ridge of rock, which encir- 


cles it, and terminates at each end in the 


17 


sea, and distant from Gaza about five 
hours in the direction of NN. E.; and 
"7p yz, Ekron, now called by the natives 


ils, Akir, the most northerly of the 


five, and at some distance inland from 


the line of hills which run along the coast 
of the Mediterranean. See Dr. Robin- 
son’s Palestine, III. 21-25. The reason 
why Gath, the remaining city of the five, 
is not mentioned, is assigned by Kimchi 
to be, its having been already subdued by 
David ; but as it was afterwards occupied 
both by the Syrians, 2 Kings xii. 17, and 
the Philistines, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, it seems 
more natural to refer its omission to the 
fact of its reduction by Uzziah, in the 
days of our prophet, as narrated in the 
latter of the above passages. It is also 
omitted Zeph. ii. 4, 5. by 1 aén, to 
turn the hand upon, means to exert one’s 
power anew, whether in the way of 
favor or of hostility. Here it is ob- 
viously to be taken in the hostile sense. 
No part of Philistia was to remain un- 
visited by Divine judgments. Comp. 
Jer. xlvii. 4; Ezek. xxv. 16. In which 
of the reductions of the Philistines, the 
prediction received its fulfilment, we 
cannot determine. One of these took 
place during the reign of Uzziah, 2 
Chron. xxvi. 6, 7; another in that of 
Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 8; they were 
afterwards successively reduced by Psam- 
meticus, king of Egypt, by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, by the Persians, by Alexander, 
and ultimately by the Asmoneans. 

9. A similar charge is here brought 
against the Phoenicians, with the super- 
added aggravation of a breach of an- 







———_ ag 

Sor mae eS 
av OF THE > ‘ 
Ef mp 2s yee oe SS ST Ae pl} 


130 


AMOS. 


Cuap, IL, 


And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
Because they delivered up a complete captivity to Edom, 
And remembered not the covenant of the brethren. 
10 But I will send a fire into the wall of Tyre, 
And it shall devour her palaces. 


11 Thus saith Jehovah: 


For three transgressions of Edom, _ 
And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
Because he pursued his brother with the sword, 


And did violence to his pity, 


And his anger tore continually, 
And he retained his wrath for ever, 
12 But I will send a fire into Teman, 
And it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah, 


cient faith. Comp. Joel iii, 4-6. The 
pms ms, covenant of brethren, includes 
tle terms of friendship and mutual as- 
sistance which were agreed upon between 
David and Hiram, 2 Sam. vy. 11; and 
afterwards between Solomon and the 
same monarch, 1 Kings y. See espe- 
cially ver. 12, (Heb. ver. 26,) where it 
is expressly stated, that ma an qs 
nnd, “they two made a league,” or 
covenant. 

10. For Tyre, and the accomplishment 
of this prediction, see on Is. xxiii. 

11. For Edom, and the fulfilment of 
_ the prophecy here pronounced against it, 
see on Is. xxxiv. 5. The guilt of the 
cruelties exercised by the Idumeans upon 
the Jews was greatly aggravated by the 
circumstance of their original relation- 
ship, Obad. 10, and the unrelenting per- 
petual character of their hatred. nnw 
pvann, lit. ¢o spoil, or destroy compas- 
sions ; i. @,80 to repress all the tender 
feelings of pity, as to become hardened 
against objects of distress. Comp. the 
phrase, m= mm, to destroy wisdom, 
Ezek. xxviii. 17. The LXX. Ital. Arab. 
Doderlein, Dathe, Vater, Justi, and some 
others, take H~vann, in the sense of tnn, 
the womb, and explain it either of preg- 
nant females, or of the fruit of the womb, 
t. e. children; but the plural is never 
used in this acceptation. Aq. ordAdyxva 
airod; Symm. omadyxva tia. ‘The root 


tn, Arab. >): Syr. Neca, signifies 


to love, in Piel, to regard with tender 
affection, to cherish feelings of compas- 
ston towards any one. ‘The 5 in mn you, 
is generally considered to be an instance 
of a paragogic in the third person, but 
it is preferable to construe it as the pro- 
nominal feminine affix, agreeing with 
7232 in the nominative absolute. The 
absence of the Mappic forms no objec- 
tion, as there are several instances of 
its omission where we might have ex- 
pected it. The accent on the penul- 
timate favors this construction, being 
occasioned solely by the absence of the 
Mappic. The verb, to be taken as a 
feminine, must be pointedny7 83 , but this 
would require 773% to be the subject i in- 
stead of the object, “which would be in- 
tolerably harsh. Comp. for the senti- 
ment, and an elliptical form of the phra- 
seology, Jer. iii. 5. The Hebrews speak 
of keeping a quality, whether good or bad, 
when they would express its prolonged 
or continued exercise. See Neh. ix. 32; 
Dan. ix. 4. 

12, That yarn, Teman, was a city, 
seems evident from its being mentioned 
along with m>=3, Bozrah, for which see 
on Is, xxxiy. 6. “Though Jerome speaks 
of it as a region, he mentions, in his Ono- 
masticon, a town of this name, at the 
distance of five miles from Petra. On 


Cuar. L 


138 Thus saith Jehovah: 


AMOS. 


131 


For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, 
And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
Because they ripped up those who were pregnant in Gilead, 
That they might enlarge their border. 
14 But I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah, 

And it shall devour the palaces thereof ; 

_ With a shout in the day of battle, 
With a tempest in the day of the storm. 


the map of Burckhardt and Grimm, it is 
placed to the south of Wady Misa. It 
was doubtless the principal place in the 
district inhabited by the descendants of 
‘Teman, one of the grandsons of Esau, 
Gen. xxxvi. 11, 15, who were celebrated 
on account of their superior wisdom, Jer. 
xliv. 7. Comp. Obad. 8, 9, and Baruch 
iii. 22. Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, 
was a Temanite. The reason why no 
mention is made of Sela, or Petra, Cred- 
ner thinks is to be found in the fact, that 
it had already been captured by Ama- 
ziah, 2 Kings xiv. 7, of whose conquests 
in that direction advantage was taken 
by his son Uzziah, ver. 22; 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 2. 

13. y429 °22, the Ammonites, descend- 
ants of Lot, Gen. xix. 3, occupied the 
territory on the east of the Jordan, be- 
tween the rivers Jabbok and Arnon, but 
more in the direction of the Arabian 
desert. That portion of country which 
lay along the Jordan, of which they had 
possessed themselves, originally belonged 
to the Amorites, which accounts for its 
being given to the tribe of Gad, Josh. 
xiii. 25. They frequently annoyed the 
Hebrews, but were repelled. by David 
and several of his successors. For the 
sake of plunder, they joined the Chal- 
deans on their invasion of Judea; and, 
even after the captivity, they evinced the 
same hostile disposition. They were 
severely chastised by Judas Maccabeus, 
1 Mace. y. 6, 7. Justin Martyr speaks of 
them as still a numerous people in his 
day, ’Auuanitdy gore viv word wARSOS. 
Dial. cum Tryph. p. 347. Ed. Paris, 1615, 
The atrocious cruelty here charged upon 
the Ammonites, appears to have formed 


no unusual part of the barbarities prac- . 
tised by the ancients in war. Comp. 
2 Kings viii. 12, xv. 16; Hos. xiii, 16, 
(Heb. xiv. 1;) and my note on the last 
passage. See also 1 Sam. xi. 2. The 
object of the Ammonites was to effect 
an utter extermination of the Israelites 
inhabiting the mountainous regions of 
Gilead, in order that they might ex- 
tend their own territory in that direc- 
tion. 

14. man, Rabbah, i. e. “ the Great,” 
was the metropolis of the country of the 
Ammonites, the extensive ruins of which 
have recently been discovered by Seetzen 
and Burckhardt on the banks of the river 
Moiet Amman, which empties itself into 
the Jabbok. The full form of the name 
was 44% 933 m3, Deut. iii. 11, by which 
it was distinguished from Rabbah of Moab, 
and a city of the same name in the tribe 
of Judah. It is called PafaSduava by 
Polybius and Stephen of Byzantium ; 
but it otherwise went among the Greeks 
by the name of #:Aadéagia, which it 
derived from Ptolemy Philadelphus. It 


is now known by that of Lyhnts Am- 


man, the same given to it by Abulfeda in 


his Tab. Syr. p.91. By mysnn, is meant 

the tremendous shout which eastern ar- 

mies give at the commencement of battle, 

partly to excite their courage, and partly 

to strike terror into the enemy. Comp. 

Exod. xxxii. 17; Josh. vi. 5, 20. Thus 

the Iliad, iii, 1, ete. — 

Airap érel ndoundey by’ fryeudvecow 
ExaoTot, 

Tp@es piv Kaayyi 7, évorn T° toav, 
bpuises &s* 

"Hote wep KAayyh yepdvwv, kK. T. A. 


1382 


AMOS. 


Cuap. II, 


15 Their king shall go into captivity, 


‘He and his princes together, 
Saith Jehovah. 


"29 , hurricane, and 710, storm or temp- 
est, mark the resistless force of the onset, 
and the utterly destructive consequences 
resulting from it. That they are poet- 
ically applied to the warlike operations 
against Rabbah, is clear from mEE35 54, 
the day of storm, being parallel with 
mandi ns, the day of battle. 

15. rot , their king, the Syr. and 
Vulg. have understood of Malcam or Mil- 
com, i. e. Moloch, an idol of the Ammon- 
ites and Moabites; but the LXX. and 
Targ. support the common rendering, 
which 1"5'y, his princes, following, would 
seem absolutely to require. It is true, this 
term might be taken figuratively to sig- 
nify priests, as in Is. xliii, 28; and 
such interpretation might appear to be 
countenanced by the occurrence of 173735 


his pitas in the parallel prophecy of 
Jeremiah, chap. xlix. 3; but the use of 
ww, his princes, immediately after by 


that prophet, shows that, if the former 


term be not an interpolation, it denotes 
the idolatrous priests who were in attend- 
ance upon the king, just as the princes 
were the chiefs and civil officers about the 
court. Oi iepeis a’tay, which the LXX. 
have added in Amos, and which is copied 
in the Syr. and Arab., was probably 
borrowed from the passage in Jeremiah ; 
or it may have been inserted in the Greek 
text by some copyist before these other 
versions were made. The combination 
of o™"'v, princes, with vE 4s, judge, chap. 
ii. 8, confirms the above interpreta- 
tion. 





CHAPTER II. 


In this chapter we have the continuation of charges and denunciations against different na- 
' tions, as the Moabites, 1-3; the Jews, 4,5; and finally, the Israelites, who were to form 
the principal objects of the prophet’s ministry, 6-8. Amos then proceeds to insist on their 
ungrateful conduct, notwithstanding the experience which they had had of distinguished 
fayora at the hand of God, 9-13; and the futility of all hopes of — which they might 


be led to entertain, 14-16. 





1 Tuus saith Jehovah: 


For three transgressions of Moab, 
And for four, I will not reverse it; 


1 For Moab, see on Is. xv. The par- 
ticular act here charged: against the Moa- 
bites is nowhere recorded. Michaelis 


is of opinion, that reference is had to 


2 Kings iii. 27; but vhe prince there 
spoken of was the son of the king of 
Moab, and not the future heir to 


the Idumean throne. The wickedness 
appears to have consisted in a wanton 
violation of the sanctity of the tomb, by 
the disinterment and burning of the 
royal remains. It was indicative of an 
enmity which was not satisfied with 
inflicting every possible injury Upon its 


Cuar. II, 


AMOS. 


133 


Because they calcined the bones of the King of Edom. 
2 But I will send a fire into Moab, i 

And it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth ; 

And Moab shall die in the tumult, 

At the shout, at the sound of the trumpet, 
3 I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, 

And kill all the princes thereof with him, 


Saith Jehovah. 
4 Thus saith Jehovah: 


For three transgressions of Judah, 
_And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
Because they have despised the law of Jehovah, 


And have not kept his statutes ; 


And their false deities have caused them to err, 
After which their fathers walked. 

5 But I will send a fire into Judah, 
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, 


victim while living, but pursued him 
even into the regions of the dead. Comp. 
Is, xxxiii. 12. 

2. nip, Kerioth ; LXX. trav woAcov 
avTOY ; Hare N23, the fortress or citadel; 
in all probability, the chief city, elsewhere 
called ay“ -7p,, Kir-Moabd, and here put 
in the plural, to describe its size, or ap- 
pearance, as comprehending more than 


one. Comp. Jer. xlviii. 24, and on Is. 
xv. 1. 442, here means the tumult of 


battle. Is. xiii. 4; xvii. 12. 

3. From the circumstance that upiy, 
judge, and not 5592, king, is selected to 
describe the chief magistrate of Moab, it 
has not without reason, been supposed, 
that, at the time the prophet wrote, or, 
at least, at the time to which his prophecy 
refers, a change had taken place in the 
government of that country ; but whether 
it was occasioned by the extinction of the 
royal house, or the appointment of a 
ruler by a foreign power, it is impossible 
to decide. The reference which some 
have made to Ps. ii. 10, in proof that 
judge and king are identical, is not in 
point; for, though the terms as there 
used are so far synonymous, that they 
both designate persons high in office, yet 


there is an obvious distinction both as it 
respects the degree of their rank, and the 
nature of the offices with which they 
were invested. ‘The connecting of the 
princes with Moab (375%) and not with 
the judge ("9 B) as in chap. i. 15, goes 
to confirm the view just given. 

4, 5. The-eharges brought against the 
Jews differ from any of the preceding, 
in the crimes which they involve having 
been committed directly against God, 
and not .against.man.. They had become 
weary of his service, abandoned his 
worship, and addicted themselves to 
idolatrous practices. Between the syno- 
nymes here employed there is this dif- 
ference of meaning : miin, Jaw, stands 
for_the institute of Moses generally, of 
which the moral code formed the basis ; 
mpm, statutes, for ceremonial 1 and 


jadi snactments. By O’sT>) lies, , idols 


here in the Vulg. The: LXX. have taken 
the same view of it, rendering it wdraa, 
vanities. Comp. for this acceptation 
Ps. xl. 5. Idols were so called because 
their pretensions and oracles were found- 
ed on falsehood, and because they deluded 
with false hopes those who worshipped 
them. Instead of being weaned from 





134 


6 Thus saith Jehovah: 


AMOS. 


Cuap. II, 


For three transgressions of Israel, 
And for four, I will not reverse it ; 
Because they sold the righteous for money, 
And the poor for a pair of sandals : 
7 Who pant for the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, 
And turn aside the way of the afflicted ; 
A man and his father go in to the same damsel, 
In order to profane my holy name, 
8 They stretch themselves upon pledged garments, 


Close to every altar ; 


their attachment to the gods which their 
ancestors had, at different times, served, 
the Jews became increasingly addicted 
to them, and thereby brought upon 
themselves the punishment inflicted by 
Nebuchadnezzar. 

6. The prophet, having secured the 
attention of the Israelites by his predic- 
tions against those communities which 
they regarded with feelings of hostility, 
comes now to his proper subject, which 
was to charge upon themselves the guilt 
which, in various ways, they, as a people, 
had contracted. beni wr, Israel, i. e. the 
Israelites, consisted, ‘after the revolt in 
the time of Rehoboam, of the ten tribes, 
whose capital was Samaria, and whose 
worship, originally that of Jehovah, 
under the visible image of the golden 
calves, speedily merged in the basest and 
most licentious idolatry. “21, ¢o sell, has 
no reference, as some have thought, to 
the conduct of a corrupt judge, who for 
money gives a verdict against the in- 
nocent, the term never being used to 
express any such act; but describes the 
selling of a person into slavery. They 
even deprived the poor of their liberty 
for the most paltry consideration. Comp. 
chap. vill. 6. 0-522, sandals, are greatly 
inferior in value to shoes, consisting 
merely of soles of leather or wood, 
fastened by two straps to the feet, one 
of which passes over the forepart of the 
foot, near the great toe, and the other 
round the ankle, 

7. 588, signifies to breathe hard, to 
pant, eagerly to desire, which well suits 


attack, bruise, ete. 


the connection, so that there is no neces- 
sity, with Houbigant, Newcome, and 
others, to change the verb into $73, fo 
The meaning of the 
prophet is, that the persons whom he 
describes were so avaricious, that, after 
having robbed others of their property, 
and reduced them to a state of poverty, 
they even begrudged them the small 
quantity of dust which they had cast on 
their heads in token of mourning. Comp. 
2 Sam. i. 2; Job ii. 12, 3, as inzsxna, is 
elsewhere used in the acceptation of on 
or upon, and is here the more appro- 
priately adopted, on account of the more 
usual preposition by having just been 
employed. Comp. chap. viii. 4. Tp, 
to turn, or thrust aside as to the way ; 
i, e. to turn any one out of his right 
course, into a trackless region, where “he 
can expect nothing but inconvenience, 
perplexity, and danger; here, to render 
the afflicted still more miserable. From 
the reference made in the following 
verse to idolatrous deities and altars, it. 
is most probable that p3y27, the damsel 
here spoken of, was not an ordinary or 
common strumpet, but_one who_prosti- 
tuted_herself in honor of Astarte, atone 
of her shrines... LXX. thy airhy radionny. 
Such an act of daring profligacy was the 
more atrocious from its having been com- 
mitted in a heathen temple, with the ex- 
press design, as the prophet states, of do- 
ing indignity toJehovah. See ei" . 
Lex. in “ara, A) 2. 

8. To retain pledged raiment over 
night was expressly prohibited by the 


-Cnap. IL. 


AMOS. 135 


And drink the wine of the amerced 


In the house of their gods. 


9. Yet it was I that destroyed the Amorite before them, 
_ Whose height was as the height of cedars, 
And who was strong as the oaks; 


I destroyed his fruit above, 
And his roots beneath, 


10 It was [ also that brought you up! from the land of Egypt, 
And led you in the desert forty years, 
To inherit the land of the Amorite. 

11 And I raised up of your sons to be prophets, 


Mosaic law, Exod. xxii. 26, 27, as it 
deprived the owner of his covering: to 
stretch one’s self upon it in an idol’s temple 
Was a great aggravation of the crime. 
poban , pledged, lit. bound, held in bon- 


dage, from $37, to bind. Arab. hid, 


(A > 
Syr, Yoau, debitum. It was not un- 


usual for the heathen to sleep near the 
altars of their gods, that they might ob- 
tain communications in dreams; but as 
it was customary to eat in a recumbent 
posture, the stretching here referred to 
would rather seem to have respect to par- 
ticipation in idolatrous feasts, especially 
as the drinking of wine in the temples is 
specified in the following line. E2152 577, 
the wine of the amerced, means wine 
purchased with money exacted ba the 
imposition of fines. m3, for min, as 
frequently. Regardless of the sufferings 
of those whom they oppressed, the apos- 
tate Israelites revelled in sensual indulg- 
ences. 

9. 4 in “SEN, is strongly adversative, 
and introduces the contrast between the 
Divine conduct and that of the Israelites, 
The ‘signal benefits which, as a nation, 
they had received from Jehovah, ought 
to have attached them for ever to his 
service. The conjunction and pronoun 
are repeated for like effect, verse 10. 
~oNT the Amorites, are here taken in a 
wide sense, as including all the inhabi- 
tants of Canaan, on account of their be- 
ing the largest and most powerful of the 
nations which occupied that country. 
Comp. Gen. xy. 16, xlviii. 22. In a more 


forest. 


special point of view, they inhabited both 
sides of the Jordan, and particularly the 
mountains afterwards possessed by the 
tribe of Judah. Their gigantic height 
and extraordinary strength, to which 
reference is frequently made in the his- 
tory of the Hebrews, are here beauti- 
fully compared to cedars and oaks, the 
most majestic and sturdy trees of the 
‘The Hebrew as well as the 
profane poets, often compare men to 
trees. Comp. Ps. xxxvii. 35, xcii. 12-16 ; 
Isa. x. 33, 34; Ezek. xvii. 3, xxxi. Six- 
teen MSS., originally twelve more, and 
now five; five of the oldest editions, and 
the Rabboth read Os 25%, “ before you,” 
instead of tm*357, “ before them,” but 
these authorities, under all the circum- 
stances of the text, are insufficient to 
warrant an alteration. 

10. Jehovah goes back to still earlier, 
but no less remarkable displays of his 
kindness to the nation, showing that from 
the commencement of its history he had 
been its benefactor. Comp. Jer. ii. 6. 
mb», fo come or go up, is always used in 
Hebrew in reference to local or political 
elevation, and not, as Rosenmiiller as- 
serts, to the North. The circumstance 
that many of the regions or places to 
which persons are said to have gone up, 
lay to the north of those from which they 
came, is purely accidental ; whereas the 
propriety of the use of the term lies in 
the fact of the mountainous character of 
the land of Canaan, while Egypt and the 
intervening regions were low and flat. 

11. The prepositive 2 in p>"22%, and 
b"41h2, is partitive, indicating that 


136 


AMOS. 


Cuap. IL 


And of your young men to be Nazarites, 
Is it not even so, O ye sons of Israel ? 


Saith Jehovah. . 


12 But ye made the Nazarites drink wine, 


And ye charged the prophets, 


Saying, Prophesy not. 


13 Behold, I will press you down, 


As the cart presseth which is full of sheaves, 


14 And refuge shall fail the swift, 


The strong man shall not exert his strength, 


some or certain persons out of the num- 
ber were selected. The Divine conde- 
scension in the selection of any of their 
race to fill the offices here specified, laid 
them under additional obligatious to de- 
vote themselves to the service of the true 
God; and not only was thereby a dis- 
tinguished honor conferred upon them, 
but such institutions furnished them with 
the means of religious instruction, and 
examples of holy living. For p-x732, the 
prophets, see on Hos, xii, 11. peat, 
Nazarites, LXX. fryacpévos, els ayaa 
pov, from “33, to separate, set one's self 
apart, abstain, were a class of persons 
among the Hebrews who ordinarily bound 
themselves by a voluntary vow to ab- 
stain either for a time, or for the whole 
period of life, from wine and all in- 
toxicating liquors, and everything made 
of the produce of the vine; and not to 
shave their head nor touch any dead 
body. Sometimes persons were, before 
their birth, devoted by their parents to 
this abstinence; as in the cases of 
Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. 
For the law of the Nazarite, see Num. vi. 
and Winer’s Realworterb. The object 
of the institute appears to have been, to 
exhibit to the view of the nation the 
power of religious principle operating m 
the way of self-control, indifference to 
sensual gratification, and an entire con- 
secration to the service of God. The 
importance which was attached to it in 
a moral point of view, is evident from 
those who thus exercised themselves in 
self-denial being classed along with the 
prophets. Respecting the undeniable- 
ness of the fact a pointed appeal is made 
at the close of the verse. 


12, What could have been more 
flagrant than to tempt the pious to break 
their solemn vow, and attempt to induce 
the inspired ambassadors of Jehovah to 
withhold the communications of his will ? 

13. Here commence the denunciations 
against the apostate Israelites. The 
Participle px, after man, is future 
in signification. See on Is, vii. 14. pay 
occurs only here as a verb; but that it 
Signifies ¢o press, oppress. etc., is clear 
from the signification of the derivatives 
npy, Ps. lv. 4, and mppq, Ps. lvi. 2, as 
well as from the connection in which it 


here occurs. Comp. pix, and the Syr. 


> ; ° 

os, angustiatus est. Las, angus- 
Comp. also the Arab. 
uk, retinuit, impedivit : Gs of st 


accidentia fortune, que impediunt hom- 
inem. ‘The verb is used transitively in 
both instances, according to the ordin- 
ary signification of Hiphil. There is 
more force in speaking of a fully laden 
cart pressing the ground under it, than 
its being itself pressed by its contents, 
mn is to be taken in the sense of down, 
as in Job xl. 12. > is pleonastic. The 
renderings of the LXX. and Vulg. éya 
kvAlw tmoxdrw iuay; ego stredebo subter 
vos, though advocated by some, are less 
appropriate. Newcome translates the 
latter hemistich thus: “As a loaded 
corn-wain presseth its sheaves ;” but 
“~ay is the objective case to mudven, and 
not to} pozm. As the object of the verb, 
supply TINT. ; 

14-16. Every attempt to resist or es- 


tia, pressura, 


cape from the evils that were cominz 


upon the nation, would prove _utterly 


Ee 


Ss 


Cuap. II. 


AMOS. 137 


15 Neither shall the mighty deliver himself; 
He that handleth the bow shall not stand, 
And the swift-footed shall not escape: 
Neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself 


16 And he that is courageous among the heroes, 


Shall flee away naked in that day, 


Saith Jehovah. 


fruitless. This sentiment is expressed 
under various forms, which are obviously 
accumulated for the sake of effect. 4 at 
the beginning of ver. 14, is not merely 
conjunctive, but marks the consequence 
or result. Verse 15th is wanting in 
some of Kennicott and De Rossi’s MSS. 
and in the Arab. ; but the omission is no 
doubt owing to the homoioteleuton of 
this and the preceding verse; just as, 


for the same reason, the words corres- 
ponding to 432 w57a"—s'5 at the end of 
ver. 14 are omitted in the Alexandrian 
copy of the LXX. ‘The preposition 2 in 
r-7422.2, gives to 424 yr, the force of 
the superlative. Comp. men23 4433, 
the fase of beasts, Prov. xxx. 30; 
a2 mE5.1, the most beautiful: of women, 
Senig't. 8, v. 9, vi. 15 evAoynuérn ev y- 
vatty, Luke i. 98, 





CHAPTER III. 


THE prophet resumes the subject of the Divine goodness towards the Hebrew people, and 
grounds upon their misimprovement of it, the certainty of their punishment, ver. 1; he 
then, in a series of pointed and appropriate interrogations, illustrates this certainty, 3-6; 
which he follows up by a vindication of his commission, 7, 8. Foreign nations are then 
summoned to witness the execution of judgment upon the kingdom of Israel, which would 


be signally severe, 9-15. 





1 Hear ye this word, which Jehovah speaketh against you, O sons 


of Israel, 


Against all the family which I brought up out of the land of 


Egypt ; 


Saying: 


1 Instead of Ssn'° "23, ‘¢ sons of Is- 
racl,” forty-three MSS., one in the mar- 
gin, originally seven, and five by correc- 
tion, read $s='w7 moa, “ house of Israel ;” 
which reading i is supported by the LXX. 
and Arab. versions. Both forms are em- 
ployed in the book of Amos, but the for- 
mer is the less frequent ; which awakens 
the suspicion that the latter has been in- 
troduced here by way of correction. That 

18 


the phrase is intended to include the 
whole Hebrew people, is evident from 
the words which follow in apposition, 
and describe the distinguished favor 
conferred upon the entire race of Jacob. 


meen, Eth. ll ath, to spread out 
a tribe, or clan; but here obviously used 
in a national sense, as in Jer. viii. 3, xxv. 
9; Micah ii. 3. 


158 


AMOS. 


Crap. II, 


2 Only you have I known of all the families of the earth, 
Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities, 


3 Will two walk together 
Except they be agreed ? 


4 Will the lion roar in the forest 


When he has no prey ? 


Will the young lion cry out from his den, 


2. 17, to know, is here employed in 
the sense of knowing with the idea of 
volition, or goodwill; to acknowledge, 
regard, care for, and by implication, to 
show favor to, Comp. Ps. i. 6, cxliv. 3; 
and ywdéonw, John x. 14, xv. 17; 2 Tim. 
ii, 19. The Israelites alone were ac- 
knowledged by Jehovah as his people, 
and as such treated with peculiar favor ; 
but in proportion to the distinction which 
they enjoyed, was the degree of Pel 
ment which their ungrateful and rebel 
lious conduct merited. 

3. In this and the three following 
verses, a series of parabolic interroga- 
tions are employed, highly calculated to 
produce conviction in the minds of those 
to whom they were addressed. They 
are familiar indeed, but so much the 
more appropriate and forcible. Instead 
of 37242, the LXX. Arab, and Vulg. read 
W743, with apparent reference to the sig- 
nification of yt° in the preceding verse. 
The primary signification of 1 +, Syr. 


—o condizit, constituit, Arab. che 99 


significavit affecturum alicui quid, is to 
point, point out, appoint a time or place, 
hence in Niphal, to meet by appointment ; 
to do anything by common consent ; to be 
agreed. ‘This last seems to he the accep- 
tation in which the verb is to be taken in 
this place: for to render, How can two 
set out upon a journey, except they meet 
by appointment ? would express that to 
be impossible, which is very often true in 
fact. Interpreters are divided in opinion 
respecting the persons to whom the num- 
ber t 2x3, ¢wo, refers. Munster and 
some others think, that the prophets gen- 
erally, or Joel and Amos in particular, are 
meant; Vatablus, Drusius, Lively, New- 
come, Bauer, Rosenmiiller, Ackermann, 
and Maurer, explain it of God and the 


prophet ; while Clarius, Grotius, Daneus, 
Marckius, Lowth, Harenberg, and Dahl, 
are of opinion that God and Israel are 
intended. The last construction of the 
passage best agrees with the bearing 
of the other interrogations. Between 
Jehovah and his apostate people there 
could no longer be any fellowship; and 
instead of the blessings which accrued to 
them from such fellowship, they had now 
nothing to expect but punishment. As 
they had walked contrary to him, so he 
would now walk contrary to them. They 
had broken his covenant, and must take 
the consequences, 

4. The lion is quiet till he sees his 
prey, but roars at the sight of it, and 
thereby inspires it with such terror, that 
it is deprived of the power of escape. 
In like manner the young lion, which 
has been weaned, and is just beginning © 
to hunt for prey, will lie silent in his den, 
till it is brought near, when the smell of 
it will rouse him from his quiet. Poiret, 
in his Travels in Barbary, Strasb. 1789, 
vol. i. p. 283, states, that the lion has 
two different modes of hunting his prey. 
When not very hungry, he contents 
himself with watching behind a bush for 
the animal which is the object of his 
attack, till it approaches, when, by a 
sudden leap, he attacks it, and seldom 
misses his aim; but if he is famished he 
does not proceed so quietly, but, im- 
patient and full of rage, he leaves his 
den, and fills, with his terrific roar, the 
echoing forest. His voice inspires all 
living beings with fear and dread; no 
creature deems itself safe in its retreat ; 
all flee, they know not whither, and by 
this means, fall into his fangs. r-4x, 
the lion, and not -"5>, the young lion, 
is the nominative to the verb ==>. The 
certainty of destruction is the point at 


Cuap. IIL. 


Except he have taken it ? 


AMOS. 


139 


5 Will the bird fall into an earth-snare, 


And there is no gin for it? 


Will the snare spring from the ground, 
When nothing whatever is caught ; 
6 Shall the trumpet be blown in a city, 


And the people not tremble? 
Shall there be evil in a city, 


And Jehovah hath not inflicted it ? 
7 Surely the Lord Jehovah inflicteth nothing, 


Except he reveal his purpose 
To his servants the prophets. 


8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? 


which the prophet aims in the simili- 
tude. 

5. Between ms and tpiva there is no 
essential difference. The sense would 
_ have been the’same had the latter word 
been omitted, and we had simply read, 

mS q°sy; but the insertion of the syno- 
xen gives more force to the sentence. m> 
connects with “Sx, as its antecedent, 
mbpris to be taken as the future of Kal, 
and regarded as expressing the sudden 
spring of an elastic snare, or net, which, 
on the bird’s touching it, suddenly rises 
and incloses it. Instruments were pre- 
pared by the providence of God for the 
capture of the Israelites, which would 
certainly do their work: there would be 
no escape. 

6. The prophet here closes his interro- 
gatory appeals ;—first by a reference to 
the effect produced upon the inhabitants 
of a city by the sounding of the trumpet, 
as a signal of war; and then, by directly 
ascribing the infliction of temporal ca- 
lamities to Jehovah, as the punisher of 
sin. For my" in the sense of temporal 
evil, or calamity, see Gen. xix. 19, xliv. 
84, Exod. xxxii. 14; Ezek. vii. 5. Arab. 
Yu, experimentum, calamitas afflic- 
tio. 

_. 7. Though the infliction of punish- 
ment of his guilty people was determined 
in his holy and righteous counsel, yet 
Jehovah would not proceed to excute it 
until he had given them full warning, and 
afforded such of them an opportunity of 


escaping as should repent and return to 
his service. He thus mixed mercy with 
judgment. 40, Theod. Bovan, counsel, 


purpose, decree ; from “>>, Arab. Og, 


posuit, firmiter statuit ; to found, lay a 
foundation, establish a plan, ordain. It 
is rather, I imagine, on this acceptation 
of the verb that the idea of purpose or 
decree is based, than upon that of a divan, 
or an assembly of persons, sitting and 
deliberating on couches: but see Gesenius 
in 40. As the Divine plan or purpose 
is necessarily secret till it be revealed, 
hence the acceptation secret came to be 
attached to the word. In this verse a 
high honor is vindicated to the pro- 
phetical office. The holy men of God 
were, by inspiration, entrusted with a 
knowledge of the Divine purposes, in so 
far as it was necessary for them to divulge 
them to the world. myz3, is the frequent- 
ative future, indicating ‘what God is ac- 
customed to do, and is best rendered by 
our present. For the sentiment, comp. 
Gen. xviii. 17. 

8. With reference to what he had 
expressed ver. 4. and in keeping with the 
mode of representation which he had 
employed chap. i. 2, Amos formally 
announces the awful character of the 
message he had heard from the Lord, 
and the impossibility of withholding 
the communication. The roar of the 
lion is loud and terrific, especially in the 
solitary forests which form his proper 
domain. See on ver. 4. 


140 


AMOS. 


Cuap. ITT, 


The Lord Jehovah hath spoken, who will not prophesy ? 
9 Proclaim ye in the palaces of Ashdod, 
And in the palaces in the land of Egypt, 


And say: 


Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, 
And behold the great commotions within her, 
And the oppressions in the midst of her. 

10 For they regard not the practice of rectitude, 


Saith Jehovah, 


That amass rapine and spoil in their palaces, 
11 Therefore thus saith he Lord Jehovah : 


9. IPI , cause tt to be heard, pub- 
lish ye! those are addressed who had 
intercourse with the places here specified, 
and had thus an opportunity of conveying 
the message. Comp. 6 dxotwy eimdtw* 
*Epxov! Rev. xxii. 17. For Ashdod, 
see on chap. i. 8. It is here used syn- 
ecdochically for the whole of Philistia. 
Instead of t4333, the LXX. have read 


“79N2, ev *Agovpios, which Secker at- ~ 


tempts to justify ! For msn by av~aa, 
comp. «npitare émt tav Swuitwv, Matt. 
x. 27. It was, and is still, custom- 
ary in the East to assemble on the 
flat roofs of the houses. To the princes 
and courtiers thus assembled on their 
palaces, as well as to all within hearing, 
the invitation was to be conveyed, 
There is something exceedingly forcible 
in these heathen rulers, etc. being called 
to witness the enormities that were prac- 
tised in Samaria. If their judgment, 
pagans as they were, could not but be 
unfavorable, what must be the judgment 
of the holy and righteous God? What 
the punishment which he must inflict ? 
Nothing can be more graphic than the 
description of the position which these 
foreigners were to occupy. They were 
to assemble yin on by, upon the 
mountains of Samaria. 4 >%'3, Samaria, 
the metropolis of the kingdom of Israel, 
was built on a round hill, near the mid- 
dle of a large valley, surrounded by moun- 
tains on every side, by which it was com- 
pletely overlooked. From these cleva- 
tions persons might distinctly see what 
was done in the city. That nia) mann 


and Dp 13 are intimately connected, and 
are both to be referred to the rich and 
powerful inhabitants of Samaria, appears 
evident from what is stated in the fol- 
lowing verse. The latter term is prop- 
erly the Pahul Participle, oppressed, but 
is here used as a noun, as in Job xxxv. 9; 
Kccles. iv. i. Comp. the forms tray, 
dwelling m2x>1 , kingdom. 

10. sxq> xd, they know not, is not in- 
tended to express simple ignorance, but 
that state of mind which is hostile to 
the entertainment of knowledge. The 
magnates of Samaria had no regard for 
the practice of what was just and right, 
but the contrary. n=, rectitude, that 
which is straight, in opposition to what 
is crooked, distorted, or morally wrong. 
Comp. Is. xxvi. 10, xxx. 10, lix. 14. 
“1 d1M, violence and desolation, mean, 
by ametonymy of the cause for the effect, 
what has been obtained by violating the 
rights and desolating the property of 
others. Such spoils they accumulated 
in their palaces, but they should not 
enjoy them. On the contrary, as the 
prophet shows in the following verses, 
they should be plundered and carried 
away by the enemy. Dathe well ex- 
presses the meaning of the verse: * Recte 
factis nequaquam delectantur, inquit Jo- 
va, sed thesauros in eedes suas congerunt 
vi atque injuria partos.” 

11. sy,the LXX., who are followed 
by Aq. and the Arab., preposterously 


render Tupos, Tyre; one of De Rossi’s 


MSS, reads "x, and one of Kennicott’s, 
siz. The Syr. Chald. éribulation, which 











PO ee NS er REE me, 


TSS aa, OE Oe 


TE ee re ee AOR ee Mn eS CMS SS 





ie eae ant ba ia nia, Sai) 


Cuap. III. 


AMOS. 


141 


There shall be an enemy, and that around the land ; 
And he shall bring down thy strength from thee, 
And thy palaces shall be plundered, 


12 Thus saith Jehovah: 


As the shepherd rescueth from the mouth of the lion 
Two legs, or the portion of an ear, 

So shall the sons of Israel be rescued, 

Who sit in Samaria on the corner of a bed, 

And in Damascus on that of a couch. » 


has been adopted in many modern ver-’ 


sions. Thus Dathe, Hesselberg, Dahl, 
Justi, and Hitzig. But Calvin, New- 
come, Michaelis, Struensee, Bauer, Ros- 
enmiiller, Vater, and Noyes, translate 
enemy, which better suits the connection, 
as it supplies a proper nominative to the 
verb 775475, immediately following. Com. 


as to derivation, the Arab. 4, nocuit, 


noxa affecit, lesit, The words, 3"203 “x 
V7 87 are abrupt and elliptical, but, for 
this very reason, possess more point. At 
“, supply mam, 8a, or the like. 4 in 
2720: has the force of e¢ quidem, or isque. 
The reading a>252,, suggested by Houbi- 
gant, considered probable by Newcome, 
and adopted by Bauer, is altogether un- 
sustained by any example of a similar 
case in verbs whose second and third radi- 
cals are the same. 4x7 2°29 is equiv- 
alent to yt. 2 Kings xvii. 5. 
where the invasion by Shalmaneser is 
described. 4», strength, denotes what- 
ever Samaria confided in, or made her 
boast of, such as her treasures, fortifi- 
cations, warriors, etc. All was to- be 
brought down into the valley, and what 
was capable of being removed, carried 
away by the enemy: 7. e. Shalmaneser, 
the king of Assyria. A just retribution 
for the spoliations which her inhabitants 
had committed. 

12. A very appropriate image is here 
borrowed from a scene in pastoral life, 
such as the prophet himself may have 
witnessed. Nothing but a mere remnant 
of the Israelites should with difficulty 
escape from the enemy. Although a lion 
may not be induced to quit his prey, if 
he is hungry and has but just seized it, 


Is. xxxi. 4; yet if he has almost devoured 
it, leaving nothing but what is here Spec- 
ified, no difficulty would be found in ef- 
fecting a rescue. For "yn 787 bos2, 
comp. gdpiadny éx orduartos Aéovtos, 2 
Tim. iv. 17; 1 Sam. xvii. 34,35. $43 
occurs only this once, but signifies a part 
or piece ; from 572, to separate. ‘Lhere 
is a species of goat in the East, the ears _ 
of which are often a foot in length, and 
broad in proportion; so that more im- 
portance would be attached to them by 
the shepherd, than would be the case 
with us in the West. The concluding 
words of the verse have greatly perplexed 
interpreters. Most of the moderns ex- 
plain pyg2 of the silk manufactured at 
Damascus, which from the name of the 
place, is called damask, and render 
wry pees, in damask couches. What 
has been supposed to confirm this ex- 
planation of the term is the occurrence 
of the same word in Arabic, only with 
the letters, or similar letters transposed, as 


VAHod aod (wliod, ete, 
all signifying sk. Gesenius has a long 
article on the word in his Thesaurus, p. 
346 ; but fails in establishing the point 
of identity. Instead of py1g3 with Shin, 


upwards of twenty of De Rossi’s MSS. 
read, or have read, Peet with Sin ; 


which reading is also that of eighteen 
printed editions, and is the proper ortho- 
graphy of the name of Damascus. What 
appears to have originated the above 
view of the word was the idea, that as 
the wealthy and voluptuous inhabitants 
of Samaria are supposed to be intended, 
there was a special propriety in adverting 
to the sumptuousness of the couches or 


142 


13 


AMOS. 


Cuapr. II, 


Hear ye, aa testify against the house of Jacob, 


Saith the Lord, Jehovah, the God of hosts, 

14 Surely in the day when I punish the transgressions of Israel, 
I will punish the altars of Bethel ; 
The horns of the altar shall be cut down, 
And they shall fall to the ground. 

15 I will also smite the winter-house with the summer-house, 
The ivory mansions shall perish, 


sofas on which they reclined. But this 
idea is totally alien from the bearing of 
the passage, which requires something to 
correspond to what had been expressed 
in the comparison of the fragments left 
by the lion. Besides, mxs signifies the 
outer or extreme corner, and not the 
inner, which is regarded as the seat of 
honor, so that the observations of Har- 
mer, chap. vi. Obs. xxx., are totally in- 
applicable, even if there were much point 
in them. The words are elliptical, and 
the parallelism, expressed in full, would 
stand thus : 


MQ MNES jinnws peaten 
: ony, MNES | pues peapn 


The persons referred to are the sick and 
infirm poor, who had nothing left but the 
side or part of a couch, and whom the 
king of Assyria would not think it worth 
his while to be at the trouble of removing, 
All the rest, the robust and active, the 
opulent and powerful, should be carried 
into captivity. For the fulfilment see 
2 Kings xvii. 5, 6, xviii. 9-12. The 
reason why Damascus is mentioned along 
with Samaria, is, that, at the time of 
the Assyrian invasion, that city was in 
the power of the Israelites, having been 
conquered by Jeroboam II. See 2 Kings 
xiv. 28. On the conquest, no doubt 
many belonging to the ten tribes went 
there to reside. 

13. The same persons are here ad- 
dressed, who were summoned from Phi- 
listia and Egypt to witness the enormi- 
ties practised in Samaria, ver. 9. They 
were now to testify to the facts of the 
case, that the punishment to be inflicted 
upon the inhabitants might be seen to 
have been richly deserved. 3 3727, as 


frequently means to testify against any 


one, minasn nds mann "2k LXX. 
Kipios 5 @eds 6 Nasroxpdreop : an ac- 


cumulation of Divine appellatives for the 


purpose of striking awe into the minds_ 
of the guilty. 

14, Signal vengeance was to be taken 
upon the place whence all the evils which 
spread through the ten tribes originated. 
For Bethel, see on Hos. iv. 15. From 
the term 37%" having the determina- 
tive article, rendering it emphatic, while 
nina in the plural also occurs, it may 
be inferred that at Bethel, besides the 
great altar erected by Jeroboam, there 
was a number of lesser ones at ‘which 
sacrifices were offered. Comp. Hos. viii. 
11, x. 5. The nist: horns, were four 
projecting points in the shape of horns 
at the corners of ancient altars. ‘They 
may be seen in the representations of 
those dug up by Belzoni in Egypt. As 
they were ornamental, the action here 


described was designed to express the 


contempt in which the altar would be 
held by the Assyrians. 

15. Eastern monarchs and princes, as 
well as others of the great, have summer 
as well as winter residences. The latter 
are in cities and sheltered situations; the 
former in forests, or upon mountains. 
75, properly zooth, but used specially of 
the tusk of the elephant ; ; tvory. LXX. 
oixot édeddytwote By ivory houses are 
not meant houses or palaces composed of 
that material, but richly ornamented 
with it. The ancients used it for 
decorating the ceilings, panels, doors, 
etc., of their rooms, by inlaying it with 
other costly articles. See 1 Kings xxii. 
39; Ps. xlv.9. Odys. iv. 73. Diod. Sic. 
iii. 47. Pausan. i. 12.4. Od. ii. 18.1. 
All these sumptuous palaces in which 
the leaders of the people rioted, and 











z 
i 
+ 
ik 
*. 
z 
i; 
bi 
" 
€ 
Va 
£ 
in 





a ee ee Oe EO ea ee hee ee ee 


Ie, ee ae ee ee eS 


Cuap. IV. 


AMOS. 143 


And the great houses shall come to an end, 


Saith Jehovah. 


indulged in all manner of profaneness, 
were to be completely destroyed. "5, 
to come to an end, cease. The render- 
ing of p72" M2, by “large houses,” 


is more agreeable to the connection than 
that of “ many houses,’ though this is 
equally expressed by the phrase. 





CHAPTER IV. 


TuIs chapter contains a continuation of the denunciation pronounced against the Israelites, 
at the close of the preceding, 1-3; an_ironical call to.them to perseyere in their will- 
worship, which was the primary cause of their calamities, 4,5; an enumeration of the 
different judgments with which they had been visited, but which ‘had effected no reforma- 
tion, 6-11; and a summons to them to prepare for the last and most awful judgment, 
which the omnipotent Jehovah was about to inflict upon them, 12, 13. 





1 Hear ye this word, ye kine of Bashan ! 
That are in the mountain of Samaria; 
That oppress the poor ; that crush the needy ; 


That say to their master, 


Bring now, that we may drink. 


1, 4%3, Bashan, was celebrated for the 
richness of the pasturage, and its excel- 
lent breed both of large and small cattle. 
Deut. xxxii. 14; Ps. xxii. 12; Ezek. 
xxxix. 18. It lay on the east of the Jor- 
dan, between Hermon and the mountains 
of Gilead, and extended eastward as far 
as the cities of Salchah and Edrei, which 
it included. Some are of opinion, that 
by qg2n ning, the kine, or cows of Ba- 
shan, the proud and luxurious females of 


Samaria are intended ; and that they are 


introduced on account of the corrupting 
influence which, through their husbands, 
they exerted on the state of public affairs. 

Of these may be mentioned, most of the 
Rabbins, Theodoret, Liveley, Grotius, 


- Michaelis, Vater, Dahl, Justi, Cesenius 


and Winer. Others, as the Targ. Jerome, 
Munster, Calvin, Vatablus, Clarius, 
Drusius, Danzeus, Mercer, Marckius, 


Harenberg, Dathe, Rosenmiiller, and 
Maurer, maintain that_the prophet has 
the princes ; and_rulers in view, whom.he.. 
describes in this debasing language, in 

order to set forth the effeminacy, wanton-. 
ness, and obstinacy of their character. 
At first view the former exposition might 
appear to recommend itself for adoption ; 
but I am induced to give my adhesion 
to the latter, chiefly on the ground, that 
it is scarcely possible, otherwise, to ac- 
count for the repeated intermixture of 
masculine forms with the feminine. Thus 
we have ay, Dr 278, HNTAn, HS"by, 
bonr, all occurring very closely ‘together. 
Now, though it must be admitted that 
there are instances in which the gender 
is neglected, as in Ruth i., yet none of 
them will bear comparison with the 
present case. On the principle, that 
males are the real, and females the fig- 


144 AMOS. 


Cuap. LY, 


2 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness: 
Behold, the days are coming upon you, 
When ye shall be taken away with hooks, 
And your posterity with fish-hooks, 

8 And ye shall go out through the breaches, 


Each one right before her ; 


Ye shall even be thrown out of the palace, 


Saith Jehovah. 


urative subjects of discourse, it is easy 
to perceive how the genders would be 
used just as the one or the other were 
prominently in the mind of the prophet. 
Some translators suppress the figurative 
language altogether, as Dathe: Audite 
hoc, vos divites et potentes Samarie ; but 
such practice is quite unwarrantable, as 
it destroys the effect of the prophetic 
mode of representation. mixx, one of 
those onomatopoetic verbs, the very 
sound of which strongly expresses the 
character of the action which they are 
intended to describe. It signifies to 
break, crush, dash in pieces. Comp. the 


Arab. >)» conduit, fregit. 4i7~% in 


tr7248, though plural in form, is sin- 
gular i in signification, and means the king 
of Israel, whom his courtiers and oth- 
ers, indulging in their compotations, 
importune for fresh supplies of wine, 
reckless of the oppression and rapine by 
which it might be procured. Comp. 
Hos. vii. 5. = suffixed in mera, is the 
= directive, or optative. 

2, 3. "> is pleonastic. It is surprising 
that so judicious an interpreter as Calvin 
should attempt to vindicate the rendering 
of ip, his sanctuary, when that of his 
holiness is so natural and proper. Comp. 
Ps. Ixxxix. 36, and lx. 8. Jehovah 
appeals to all that is involved in the 
infinite excellence of his moral character 
for the certainty of his punishing sin. 
_The Nominative to sv is the enemy, 
understood ; but as the verb is put in the 
impersonal form, it is best rendered 
passively. Déderlein and some others 
object to the adoption, in this place, of 
hooks and jfish-hooks, as the signification 
of b*ss and ma57 nin}, as too violent a 


change of the figure; and propose that 
we should retain the primary acceptation 
of thorns, which they think is more in 
keeping with the idea of cows. They 
accordingly render the passage: “Ye 
shall be driven into thorny districts, and 
among the gloomy thorn bushes.” ‘There 
is, however, no necessity for supposing 
that the prophet had the alleged idea in 
his mind when he delivered the words, 
but the contrary; and as fishing and 
hooks are elsewhere employed figuratively 
in reference to human beings, there can 
be no real ground for rejecting such 
tropical application of the disputed terms 
in this place. See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11; 
Is, xxxxii. 29; Jer. xvi. 16; Ezek. xxix. 
4, M132 MBN each one right before her, 
means, in a captive state, not being 
permitted by the enemy to turn to the 
right or the left. mansbun is pointed 
monsten in De Rossi’s ‘Spanish MS. 
marked 33, which punctuation has been 
adopted in Halin’s small printed edition. 
Comp. $n, Dan. viii. 11. It is sup- 
ported by the LXX. Syr. Symm. Vulg. 
and Arab. all of which versions exhibit 
the passive. = at the end of the verb is 
that of the fuller form of the pronoun 
mms, the fragment of which is used as a 
suffix. It occurs but seldom in the pre- 
terite. Of m3i%2477 almost every possi- 
ble interpretation ‘has been given, LXX. 
7d Bpos Td ‘Peupdy; Cod. Vat. Poupdr ; 
in many of the MSS. of Flamin. Nob. 


m~ > 
“Apuava. Syr, 1805/9 [30.25 Chald. 
“E971 “ND, the mountains of Armenia. 
Vulg. Armon. Arab. after the LXX, 


ol | dia. Aq. *Apuava Bpos. 
Symm. *’Epunviay, doubtless for ’Apyeviay, 


lia 


ee 


ee a 








ee id ei eT lene) Ry 





Cuap. LV. 


AMOS. 


145 


4 Come ye to Bethel, and transgress ; 
At Gilgal, multiply transgression ; 
Bring your sacrifices every morning, 


Your tithes every third year. 


5 Offer incense of the leavened thank-offering ; 
Proclaim the voluntary offerings: publish them abroad ; 
For ye love to have it so, O ye sons of Israel, 


Saith Jehovah. 


6 And though [have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, 


Theod. dpos Mord. Edit quint. tynadv 
épos, Luther and Vater, Hermon. Mi- 
chaelis, Struensee, Dathe, Bauer, De 
Wette, Armenia. Justi and Hezel, Ha- 
rem. Volborth, Net. Hitzig takes it to 
be a corruption of m2i24 71m, Hadadrim- 
mon, which he explains ‘of a place near 


Samaria where Adonis was worshipped.- 


Newcome cuts the knot and renders 
‘will utterly destroy it.” The only sat- 
isfactory solution of the difficulty pre- 
sented by this drat Acy. is that of Kim- 
chi, which is approved by Gesenius, 
Winer, and Lee, viz. that Vi stands 
for V8; a palace, or citadel. Comp. the 


Arab. ror, a lofty edifice, a pyra- 


mid. Changes in letters of the same or- 
gan are not unfrequent in Hebrew, as 37x, 
Ty Was, pron; meh, ods Va ans 
etc. The 5 at the end is not the femin- 
ine termination, but simply paragogic, as 
in mss, Job xxxiv. 13, xxxvii. 12; Is. 

viii. 23; and monnn, Judges xiv. 18. 

The noun will thus be the accusative ab- 
solute, and the construction will be * cast 


down as to the palace,” i. e. from it, over. 


its walls, or the like. The place in which 
the princes had rioted, and in the 
strength of which they confided, should 
afford them no safety. 

4,5. The language of these verses is 
that of the keenest irony. The Israelites 
were addicted to the worship of the 
golden calf, and to that of idols, whereby 
they contracted guilt before Jehovah, 
and exposed themselves to his judg- 
ments; at the same time they hypo- 
critically professed to keep up the ob- 
servance of certain feasts which had 
been appointed by Moses. For Gilgat, 

19 


as a place of idolatrous worship, see on 
Hos. iv. 15. The opinion of Abenezra, 
approved by Rosenmiiller and Maurer, 
that by pn. ny seed, we are to under- 
stand every third day, seems forced and 
unnatural. That the words by them- 
selves might have this meaning is un- 
questionable: but the idea of tithes being 
brought every third day is inadmissible, 
even into a passage so strongly ironical 
as the present. I cannot doubt that the 
prophet has in view the enactment 
recorded Deut. xiv. 29, xxvi. 12. Da-, 
days, mean, here, as Lev. xxv. 29; 
Judges xvii. 10, the fullest complement 
of days, i. e. a year. — wp is most probably 
the infinitive, used for the second plural 
of the imperative; or it may be the 
second singular of the same. There is 
no necessity for attaching to jan, the 
meaning of violence, though vain 
would justify it, on the ground of "3h 
being used, Ps. Ixxi. 4, to designate an 
oppressor ; and because the rendering of 
the Chald. in this place is p24x, rapine 
or oppression. It is not impossible that 
the translator mistook von for Dien, 
which has this signification. The point 
of reference is doubtless the ordinance, 
Lev. vii. 13, that, besides the unleavened 
cakes, the Hebrews were to offer ‘ Jeav- 
ened bread”’ with the sacrifice of thanks- 
giving. What the Israelites, therefore, 
are supposed to be in the habit of doing 
was, so far as the material of the thing 
was concerned, not contrary to the law, 
but in strict accordance with its require- 
met For Pans 42, comp. rans 22 
, Jer. v. 31. 

% From this verse to the 11th inclu- 

sive, Jehovah describes the different 


146 AMOS. Cuar. IV. 
And want of bread in all your places, 
Yet ye have not returned unto me, 
Saith Jehovah. | 
7 And though I have withholden the rain,‘ 
Three months before the harvest ; 
And have caused it to rain upon one city, 
But upon another city I-have not caused it to rain ; 
One portion was rained upon, 
And the portion upon which it rained not, withered : 


8 And two or three cities wandered to one city, 
To drink water, but have not been satisfied, 


_ Yet ye returned not to me, 
Saith Jehovah. 


9 Ihave smitten you with mildew and much blight ; 
Your gardens, your vineyards, and your figs, and your olives, 


The locusts hath devoured ; 


Yet ye have not returned unto me, 


Saith Jehovah. 
10 


I have sent among you the plague, such as that of Egypt ; 


I have slain your young men with the sword, 


corrective measures which he had em- 
ployed for the purpose of effecting a 
change in the Israelites, and at the close 
of each mentioned in the series, the ob- 
stinate impenitence, under the influence 
of which they persisted in their wicked 
courses, is emphatically marked by the 
declaration, min? os? "19 OnI—Nd3, 
yet ye returned not unto me, saith Jeho- 
vah. Such repetition gives great force 
to the reprehension, 93 44*p3, clean- 
ness of teeth, and and son, lack of bread, 
are synonymous ; both expressing the 
_ famine with which the nation has been 
visited. 19, to me, the Chald. para- 
phrases, "3 nbs eb, to my worship, or ser- 
vice. 

7, 8. The famine was followed by the 
judgment of drought, which at once pro- 
duced sterility, and cut off the necessary 
supply of drink for man and beast. The 
rain that had been withheld, was the 
wip, vernal, or latter rain, which falls 
in the latter half of February, the whole 
of March and April, and thus precedes 
the harvest, as here stated. See on Hos. 
vi. 3. Whatever rain fell was exceed- 


ingly partial and insufficient. Instead of 
“oun, the reading => 723 is found in 
two MSS. and is supported by the ren- 
derings of the LXX. Arab. and Vulg. 
The textual reading must be taken im- 
personally. p72, cities, stands for their 


inhabitants. Comp. for a lengthened and 


graphic description of the judgment here 
specified, Jer. xiv. 1-6. 

9. A bad harvest, arising from the 
destruction of the corn by the dlighting 
influence of the east wind (>‘£73, scorch- 
ing, blasting, from 51%, to scorch ; Chald. 
ye, to burn; Arab. Lada, niger, 
LXX. mipwois, Arab. Ver. , \, 
the Simoom,) and the mildew, or smut. 
VP Arab. yep, rubigo. nian, 


the infinitive absolute of ;25 in Hiphil, 
with the force of an adjective or an 
adverb. This word some improperly 


connect, as a construct noun, with 
the following substantives. TA, @ 
name given to the locust. See on 


Joel i. 4. 
10. Though the plague has from time 





Cuap. IV. 


AMOS. 


147 


Together with your captive horses: 
And I have made the stench of oF Nes camps to come up into 


your nostrils ; 


Yet ye have not séturied unto me, 


Saith Jehovah. 
11 


I have overthrown some among you, 


As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah ; 
And ye have been as a brand snatched from the burning ; 
Yet ye have not returned unto me, 


Saith Jehovah. 
12 


Therefore, thus will I deal with thee, O Israel! 


Forasmuch as I will do this to thee, 
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel ! 


immemorial been endemic in Egypt, and 
might so far be described as 27152 711 
the way of Egypt; yet comparing Is. x, 
26, in which the same phrase is used as 
here, it obviously means, as the Egyptians 


were treated, or as God punished them” 


with the plague. See Exod. ix. 3, etc. 
ES o1 ay, lit. the captivity of your 
horses: i. e. those taken and destroyed. 
by the enemy. See 2 Kings xiii. 7. 
gxa the LXX. render éy mvp), having 
read wis, which is the pointing of three 
of De Rossi’s MSS., and of three others 
originally ; as also of the Brixian edition. 
Aq. camplav. The) in pssy23, Houbi- 
gant, Dahl, and some others would can- 
cel, on the ground of its harshness, and 
its not having been expressed by the 
LXX. Arab. Syr. and Vulg. It is 
translated in the Targ., and is to be re- 
tained, as an intensive particle, adding 
force to the preceding verb. Comp. the 
somewhat similar use of the Greek 
kad. 

11, 3 in t32 is used partitively : inter, 
among, or the Tike; indicating that the 
subverting was not total. nSe"29 
bens, like God's overthrowing : prop- 


erly Hiphil participle, but construed as 
an infinite. Comp. Deut. xxix. 22; Is. 
xiii. 19; Jer.1.40; 2 Pet. ii.6; Jude 7. 
t-nbs, which stands for the affix of the 
first personal pronoun, Newcome im- 
properly converts into a superlative, and 
renders, “*the great overthrow!” His 


remark on mx, as sometimes the sign of 
the genitive case, is likewise totally in- 
applicable, as in the present case it can 
only mark the accusative. ‘lo what 
physical phenomena reference is here 
specifically made, it is impossible to de- 
termine, owing to the absence of all his- 
torical data. Some think the earth- 
quake, mentioned chap. i. 2, is intended ; 
but this is altogether out of the question, 
since the prophecy was delivered two 
years before that event. From the allu- 
sion to fire, it has been deemed probable 
that some of the cities of the Israelites 
had been burnt, either by lightning from 
heaven, or by the army of the king of 
Syria. At all events, that the language 
is not to be understood figuratively is 
evident from the close connection of the 
verse with those preceding, each of which 
describes a separate physical calamity, 
and closes, as this one does, with a re- 
prehension of the impenitence by which 
the nation continued to be characterized.. 
mp er ba “aN, a brand snatched from 
the burning, is proverbial, and expresses 
the narrow escape from utter extinction 
which had been experienced. Comp. 
Zech. iii. 2; and 1 Cor, ii. 15: abréds 
5& cwShoerar, ofrws 5 ds Sid mupds. 
12. All the means that had been em- 
ployed to reform the Israelites having 
proved ineffectual, they are here sum- 
moned to prepare for the final judgment, 
which was to put an end to their na- 
tional existence. To this judgment re- 


148 


AMOS. 


Cuap. V. 


13 For, behold! it is He that formed the mountains; 


And created the wind; 


And declareth to man what is his thought ; 
That maketh the morning darkness, 
And walketh upon the heights of the earth : 
Jehovah, God of hosts, is his name. 


ference is emphatically made in the 
terms md, thus, and mxz, this. There is 
a brief resumption of the sentence de- 
livered verses 2 and 3. That by 3427 
any such preparation is intended as 
would involve genuine and universal 
repentance, by which the threatened 
judgment might have been averted, 
cannot be admitted in consistency with 
the bearing both of the preceding and 
the following context. The removal of 
the Israelites, as a nation, is denounced 
as certain, and inevitable. It is rather 
to be understood as 55 jan, prepare 
thee, Jer. xlvi. 14. God is now com- 
ing against you as the avenger of your 
wickedness. Consider how you shall 
meet, or endure the infliction. Comp. 
Ezek. xxii. 14; Heb. x. 31. Individ- 
uals might by repentance obtain the 
forgiveness of their personal transgres- 
sions, and thus have their minds brought 
into a state in which they would enjoy 
support and comfort in the midst of na- 
tional calamity ; but this was all that 
could now be expected. 

13. To give full effect to the preced- 
ing call, one of the most sublime and 


magnificent descriptions of Jehovah, to be 
met with in Scripture, is here introduced. 


The participial form of the five verbs 
employed by the prophet greatly en- 


hances the beauty of the passage ; but it 


cannot be successfully imitated in a 
translation. Some have doubted whether 
min does not here signify spirit, rather 
than wind ; but it seems more natural to 
take the term in the latter acceptation, 
on account of the close coherence of this 
clause of the verse with that immediately 
preceding. The rendering of the LXX. 
amrayyéAAwv eis avSpdérous thy xpiordy 
avtov, announcing to men his anointed, 
has originated in their mistaking’) pz—-19 
for im-t%. Theodoret, in commenting 
upon the version, thinks Cyrus is in- 
tended, and not Christ, as we may other- 
wise imagine the fathers would expound 
it. By inwis not meant God’s thought, 
or his purposes, as some have taken it, 
but the thoughts or meditations of man, 
of which alone the verb mv and its 
derivatives, when applied to intelligent 
beings, is used. mys is followed by a 
double accusative: that of the material 
out of which the thing is made, and that 
of the matter into which it is converted. 
It must, however, be observed, that up- 
wards of twenty of Kennicott’s MSS. 
read, or have read, m5*31, which is the 
reading of the LXX. and Arab. Accord- 
ing to this construction. the passage must 
be translated thus: ‘He that maketh 
the aurora and the darkness.” 





CHAPTER V. 


AFTER giving utterance to a brief elegy over the prostrate and helpless condition of the 
kingdom, which had just been predicted, 1-3, the prophet introduces Jehovah still ad- 
dressing himself to the inhabitants; calling upon them to relinquish their superstitious 
and idolatrous practices, and return to his service, 4-9. He then adverts the picture of 
wickedness which the nation exhibited, 10-13; repeats the call to cultivate habits of piety — 
and righteousness, 14, 15; describes, in plaintive strains, the destruction that was coming 





el Maca 


7 


Sy ee ey NS ee ae a 





on ee 


ee ee ee ee ee a ee ee ee ee er pone ee 
' z « 
, 


Cuap. V. 


AMOS. 


149 


upon the land, 16-20; exposes the inutility of ceremonial rites when substituted for moral 
rectitude, or combined with unauthorized worship, 21-26; and expressly threatens the Is- 


raelites with transportation into the East, 27. 





1 Hear ye this word, which I utter concerning you — 
A lamentation, O house of Israel! 


2 The virgin of-Israel is fallen ; 
She shall rise no more ; 
Prostrate upon her own land, 
There is none to raise her up. 


- 8 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, 


The city that went out by a thousand, 


Shall have an hundred lett ; 


And she that went out by an hundred, 


Shall have ten left 
To the house of Israel. 


1. mp is properly an elegy, or song of 


mourning and lamentation, from 47, in 


Piel, to compose or chant sucha song. It 
consisted. of plaintive effusions poured 
forth by mourning relatives, or by per- 
sons hired for the purpose, at funerals ; 
and was distinguished for the tender, 
pathetic, broken and exclamatory nature 
of the expressions of which it was com- 
posed, as well as the touching features 
of the subject which they were designed 
to embody. Of this mode of composition 
the Hebrew prophets frequently avail 
themselves, especially Jeremiah, who, 
besides introducing it into several of his 
prophecies, has left us a whole book of 
mia", elegies, or lamentations. See 
Lowth, Lect. xxii. For the introduction 
of the present subject, comp. h2°7 Sw 
by or 59, Ezek. xix. 1, xxvii. 2. xxxii, 
2, and the common oracular forms 2) 
niva, du, etc. Some are of opinion 
that the elegy thus introduced extends 
to the end of the chapter, but it is far 
more likely that it consists merely of 
the plaintive exclamations contained in 
verse 2. Compare the beautiful lament 
of David on the death of Jonathan, 2 
Sam. i. 17-27. 

2. The Israelitish state is called bars, 
@ virgin, because it had never been sub- 


dued by any foreign prince. See on 
Is. xxiii. 12. The passages, Jer. xviii. 
13, and Lam. ii. 13, which Rosenmiiller 
adduces against this interpretation of the 
term, are not in point, since both refer to 
the character which Jerusalem sustained 
previous to the deplorable condition to 
which she had been reduced by the 
violence of the enemy. It cannot, there- 
fore, be regarded as merely synonymous 
with ma, daughter, as idiomatically ap- 
plied to describe the inhabitants of a city 
or state. This brief, but touching elegy 
describes the utterly prostrate and _help- 
less condition to which the Assyrians were 
to reduce the kingdom of the ten tribes. 

3. The depopulated state of the coun- 
try is here affectingly depicted. “9, 
the city, stands by metonymy for its in- 
habitants. The LXX. 7 wéaus é fis éte- 
mopebovTo X{AtoL, and so the other an- 
cient versions. rxxser, that went out, 
is used elliptically for mantss mesien, 
that went forth to war. "The population 
or size of a city was estimated according 
to the number of warriors it could fur- 
nish. Thus the Scholiast on Iliad ix. 
383, 384: ob 7d wAdTOS TaY TUA@Y SéAEt 
ceualvew, ovdt yap Gua mdvras ébiévar 
gnolv: &AAG TS péyedsos Tis méAEws, Kal 
7d TARSos TGV dvdpav. 


150 


AMOS. 


Cuap. V. 


4 For thus saith Jehovah to the house of Israel, 


Seek ye me, and live. 
5 And seek not Bethel ; 
And go not to Gilgal ; 


Neither pass through to Beersheba ; 
For Gigal shall surely go into captivity, 
And Bethel shall come to nought. 


6 Seek ye Jehovah, and live, 


Lest he rush down, like fire, upon the house of J been: 


4, While the divine judgments are not 
executed, there is still room for repent- 
ance and reformation. %4 1, to seck, is 
very often used as a religious term, im- 
plying application to God, or to a false 
deity, for assistance, direction, etc. and 
then generally to worship him, and have 
respect to his will. Ps. xxiv. 6; Is. 
viii. 19, lv. 6. Comp. Heb. xi. 6, bey 
te Tow Ocdy. ZED is similarly used. 
aa lave ye, is employed as a second im- 
perative, in order emphatically to ex- 
press the certainty of the result that 
would ensue from compliance with the 
command given by the first. 

5. A strong dissuasive from idolatry, 
derived from the predicted fall of the 
objects and places of false worship. 
yaD “832, Beersheba, lit. the Well of 
the Oath;” LXX. 7d gpéap rod Spxov; 
see Gen. xxi. 22-31. It was situated 
about twenty-five geographical miles 
south of Hebron, on the frontier of the 
Holy Land towards Idumea, and is still 


called by the Arabs cowl , Bir- 


es-seba’. Dr. Robinson fell in with its 
ruins on the north side of a Wady of the 
same name, but found nothing bearing 
the marks of high antiquity, except two 
wells, one of which he ascertained to be 
forty-four feet and a half in depth to 
the surface of the water, and the other 
forty-two feet. As it lay in the extreme 
south of Palestine, the verb 429, ¢o pass 
over or through, is most appropriate. 
From this verse, and from chap. viii. 14, 
it appears to have been a place of idol- 
atrous resort, but wherein the idolatry 
consisted we are not told. In baban 
ma> ma is a forcible paronomasia, 


though the words are from different 
roots. ‘Gilgal gallando gallabitur, si 
posset fingi aliquod tale verbum; hoc 
est, vertetur volubili versione.” Calvin, 
in loc. here is likewise a play upon 
the word TIS, which is used to denote 
wickedness, idolatry, idol, nothing, ete. 
What had originally been ty—m.n, 
Bethel, a house of God, but had by the 
Israelites been converted into 4733—>°3,, 
Beth-aven, a house of idolatry, see Hos. 
iv. 15, x. 5; should be reduced to j1x, 
aven Wothinar 

6. The prophet here repeats, for the 
sake of effect, the call which he had in- 
troduced, ver.4. os, which more com- 
monly has the significations attaching to 


the Arab. ee recté se habet res, 


aptus fuit, ete. has here that of the Syriac 
vy . . 
ais 2) descendit, perruptt. 


eral idea of motion, either forward or 
downward, seems to be conveyed by it, 
only, in certain cases, with the superad- 
ded notion of violence or force. Thus 

min ran by mbsnmi, is not improp- 
pi ‘yendered in our common version, 
« And the Spirit of the Lord came 
mightily upon him.” Dahl prefers the 
rendering perdidit, which he derives 


from the Arab. ,; ete exitiale malum ; 


The gen- 


but the form - psLan, pen- 


etrans, vehemens, might rather be com- 
pared. Jehovah is often compared to 
fire. See Is. x. 17; Lam. ii. 3. Sx, 
being of common gender, is the nom- 
inative to nb=N, so that the object of 








BA TS 


Cuap. V. 


AMOS. 


And it devour, and there be none in Bethel to quench it. 
7 Ye who turn justice into wormwood, 

And cast righteousness to the ground, 
8 Seek Him that made the Pleiades and Orion ; 

That turned deathshade into morning ; 


That maketh day dark as night ; 


/ 


That calleth the waters of the sea, 
And poureth them forth upon the earth ; 


Jehovah is his name, 


comparison tal the place of min}, who 
is the subject, and the proper nominative. 

HOi7 m3, the house of Joseph, is a less 
frequent designation of the ten tribes, 
the principal of which was that of Eph- 
raim, the son of Joseph. It occurs 
several times in the historical books, but 
only twice besides in the prophets, viz. 

Obad. 18; Zech. x. 6. The name 591°, 
Joseph, by itself, is similarly employed, 
Amos vy. 15, vi. 6. Comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 
16. For sy-ma, Bethel, the LXX. 
Arab. and one of De Rossi’s MSS. read 
bye? na; Beth Yisrael, which reading 
is ‘adopted by Newcome. One of Keani. 
cott’s MSS. has ten Israel, which 
Houbigant, Dathe, and Bauer, approve. 

Jerome, Rosenmiiller, Dahl, Justi, Stru- 
ensee, and others, retain the received 
reading, which is supported by the 
Targ., Syr., and Vulg. Some would con- 
nect dx~n3a with m25%, and render, 
«there shall be none to quench Bethel ;” 

but the verb 35 is never constructed 
with 3, which marks here the Dative of 
possession. The true construction is, 
mana becnsd 7S: The_people_of 
Israel put their’ trust in the idols which 
they worshipped at Bethel, but_none of 
them could remove the Divine judg-- 
ments from the land. 

7. B-sphn, ye that turn, is to be re- 
ferred to 1345 and O14" m2 in the pre- 
ceding verse. This construction is more 
natural than that which would take m-3 
sjDi> alone as the nominative, in the 
third person. Such changes of person 
as that presented ina man , are too fre- 
quent to occasion any difficulty ; nor is 
it always necessary to express them in a 
translation. Ewald takes an effectual 


method of removing the supposed dif- 
ficulty, by striking out the verse, and in- 
serting it at the beginning of verse 10. 
Of course, the whole will then read very 
smoothly ; but the question still remains, 
Did Amos so connect the words? 722%, 


Arab. 


Hebrew name of wormwood, and is given 
to it on account of its disgustingly bitter 
and injurious quality. The LXX. now 
read 6 roy eis tyos xpiua; but there 
can he little doubt that the original read- 
ing was &uvSos. The meaning is, that 
the persons spoken of so perverted their 
judicial proceedings, as to render them 
both obnoxious and injurious to those 
whom they affected. For y4xb mran, 
see on Is, xxviii. 2. 

8. Another sublime description of the 
Most High, almost verbally identical 
with that furnished Job ix. 9. The 
participles are to be referred to mim>, 
Jehovah, ver. 6, as their antecedent. 
Newcome, following the Targ. and Syr., 
inserts “ that have forsaken ”’ at the com- 
mencement of the verse, but these au- 
thorities are not sufficient to warrant the 
addition, which, indeed, the text does 
not require. The article, used as a re- 
lative in s4ipm and s"ba%2n, is omitted 
before mv dad ne 7, because they are in 
construction. ‘Two of the principal con- 
stellations as selected from the heavenly 
bodies as specimens of the effects of 
Omnipotence. mia">, the Pleiades, or 
Seven Stars. This word occurs only here 
and Job ix. 9, xxxviii. 31. The deriva- 
tion from a supposititious root M2 , cog- 
nate with ban, pm, msn, to be warm, 
hot, adopted by Castellus, Schultens, 


, abegit, execratus est, is the 


’ 


152 AMOS. 


CuHap. V. 


9 That bringeth destruction suddenly upon the mighty, 
And destruction cometh upon the fortress, 


Parkhurst, and others, is to be rejected 
for that preserved in the Arab, ° 3S 


Conj. II, cumulum fecit ; hence, ing, 


cumulus ; with which may be compared 
mass socius, according to which the 


name expresses what is brought or bound 
together, especially in abundance. The 
name given to this constellation by the 


Arabs is |, 3, an abundance or multi- 
tude, from 4.3, multus ae numerosus 


evasit, numerosus reddidit. For the 
Same reason it was called by the Greeks 
TlAciddes, according to one of the deriva- 
tions of Eustathius on Homer, Iliad. 
XVill. 446: Ai 5& mAciides Hroe ard Tis 
KyTpds abtav TlAnidvns ? Sr wAclous duod 
Kata wlay cuvarywyhv elot, x7. A. And 
most of the ancients express the same 
idea; as Seneca, densi pleiadum greges ; 
Propertius, pleiadum chorus, ete. Ac- 
cording to the Greek mythology, the 
Pleiades were seven daughters of Atlas, 
who, being pursued by Orion, were 
changed by Jupiter into doves, and hav- 
ing been transplanted to the heavens, 
form the assemblage of the Seven Stars 
in the neck of Taurus, In the passage 
in the Iliad just referred to, they are por- 
trayed on the shield of Achilles along 
with Orion, in the same order as in our 
prophet : 

TlAniddas, Y “Vddas re, 7d Te oSé€vos *Oplw- 

vos. > 


In the mythology of the Sabians or 


Mendaites Laduoe, the Seven, and 
is 20a Lacas, the Seven Stars, 


cut no inconsiderable figure. See Nor- 
berg’s Liber Adami. For b»p5, see on 
Is xiii. 10. Both terms have been en- 
tirely mistaken by the LX X. who render 
6 wodv mdyra Kad werarKevd (wv, which is 


faithfully copied by the Arab, es ast 
Anis WS nyabs, the shadow of 


death, one of the very few Hebrew com- 
pounds. See on Is, ix. 1. 4 is to be 
supplied before 73-4, as, indeed, it is in 
fourteen MSS., primarily in three more, 
and now by correction in one; in both 
the Soncin. editions ; in both of Bom- 
berg, 1518 in the margin, and in 
the appendix to Munster’s, 1536. In 
797, there is a transition from the 
participial to the finite form of the verb. 
To render the clause uniform, the con- 
struction would be, md-$3 pis pone. 
The passage quoted from Pindar, by 
Clemens Alexandrinus, is beautifully 
parallel : — 

Oc Se Suvardy ee peralvas 

Nuxtds dulavroy &pru das* 

Kedaw@ véper 58 oxdrov Kaddwat 

Kasapoy du€pas o€das. . 
The following words are descriptive, not 
of rain, as Jerome, Theodoret, Kimchi, 
Drusius, Lively, Marckius, Dahl, and 
Rosenmiiller maintain, but of a deluge 
or inundation, the waters of which may 
emphatically be said to be poured over 
the earth. Thus Grotius, Clarius, Bauer, 
and likewise Lowth, though he admits 
the possibility of the other view being 
right. The Alex. reading of the LXX, 
6 Sebs 6 mavroxpdtwp is found in the 
Arab., in a Copt. MS., and in the Sla- 
von. Bible, has the support of three 
MSS., yet it is more likely an addition 
from chap. iv. 13, than otherwise. 

9. After the prophet had apparently 
completed his magnificent description of 
the Divine character, with the words 
‘0% nim, he appends in this verse an 
additional view of it, in order to make it 
tell more practically on the fears of those 
who boasted of the strength of Samaria. 
sts, Arab. ? niturt, fulgit aurora, 


not only conveys the idea of shining, be- 
ing bright, cheerful, etc. but also that of 
suddenness, suggested by the rapidity 
with which the dawning licht is diffused 
over the horizon. The Hebrews applied 
such terms figuratively to the sudden 
production of misery, as well as to that 


Cuap. V. 


10 


AMOS. 


153 


They hate him that reproveth in the gate, 


And abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 

11 Wherefore, because ye trample upon the poor, 
And take from him the tribute of corn: 
Though ye have built houses of hewn stone, 


Ye shall not dwell in them ; 


Though ye have planted pleasant vineyards, 
Ye shall not drink of their wine. 
12 For I know that your transgressions are many, 


And that your sins are great: 


Oppressing the righteous, 
Taking a bribe, 


And turning aside the poor in the gate. 
13 Therefore the prudent shall be silent at that time ; 


For it is an evil time. 


of happiness. See on Joel ii. 2. Winer, 
orirt faciens, inducens super potentes 
vastationem. 'The ancient versions are 
all at fault here. 

10. Ewald thinks that by h-s4 5333, 
the reprover in the gate, Amos himself 
is meant ; but, from the recurrence of 
s2v, and = 3232, in connection with 
wes, ver. 15, it is far more natural to 
interpret the phrase of a magistrate, sen- 
ator, or judge. Comp. also ver. 12, and 
see on Is, xxix. 21. In pen, which 
is to be taken adverbially, as J udges ix. 
9, is an ellipsis of 3. 

11-13. ozS is, ‘in all probability, a 
Late orthography of oO3, the Polal. of 

=, Arab. Lind, vilipendit rem, to tread 
yen trample upon, etc. De Rossi’s co- 
dex 380, reads=soiy4a with Sin. mye, 
what is raised, as a tax, tribute, etc. from 
niw2, to raise. Instead of remitting to 
the: poor the tax which they were unable 
to pay, the rulers and proprietors rigidly 
exacted it, that they might consume it 
upon their lusts. But in whatever state 
and luxury they might have lived, and 
whatever preparations they might be 
making for further indulgences, Jehovah 
declares that they should not continue 
to enjoy them. The enemy would 
speedily remove them from all the ob- 
jects on which they proudly doated, or 
from which they expected aiieas -S: 


For the contrary of the threatening, see 
Is. Ixv. 21, 22; Amos ix. 14. The ad- 
jectives pra and basy, are placed be- 
fore their substantives, because they are 
predicatives, and not qualificatives. Be- 
fore both, the conjunction »> is to be 
supplied. The ellipsis was probably oc- 
casioned by its having been used at the 
beginning of the verse. “55 is most 
commonly used in the sense of Adrtpor, 
aytidvtpov, ransom, or price of redemp- 
tion, on which account Ewald and some 
others render it so here; but the close 
connection in which the whole phrase 
stands with the perversion of justice, 
specified in the last clause of the verse, 
decides in favor of the signification bribe, 
bribery, which the word unquestionably 
has, 1 Sam. xii.3. Targ. sps7 75712 » the 


mammon of falsehood. Syr. 1 —_ Cs, 


a bribe. LXX. dadAdypara. The other 
Greek versions, eéfAacua. If pyax 77s 
could be taken to mean, “ shutting up, Or 
imprisoning the righteous,” then “22 
might mean ransom; but such usage 
does not obtain. ‘The only course left 
for the pious to pursue in the midst of 
such atrocious perversion of order and 
justice, was that of quietly submitting to 
the hand of God, which they were taught 
to recognize in the permission of these 
evils, and patiently to abide the issue of 


154 AMOS. 


Cuap. V. 


14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; 
And it shall be so; Jehovah, God of hosts, shall be with you, 


According as ye say. 
15 Hate evil and love good, 


And establish justice in the gate ; 
Perhaps Jehovah, God of hosts, may pity 


The residue of Joseph. 


16 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, God of hosts, the Lord: 
In all the broad places there shall be wailing ; 
And in all the streets, they shall say, Oh! Oh! 
They shall call the husbandman to mourning ; 
And all who are skilled in elegy to wailing. 


events. Any attempt, under these cir- 
cumstances, to stem the current, or effect 
a reformation, or even to plead for private 
or public rights, would only aggravate 
their calamities. d*D‘y1a71, the intelligent, 
prudent, is to be understood, in the best 
sense, of one who acts upon the princi- 
ples of enlightened piety. 

14, 15. Reiterated calls to reformation, 
in order to ensure the return of Divine 
favor. Both the style and the sen- 
timents have their parallel in Is. i. 16, 17. 
Notwithstanding the sad apostasies of 
the Israelitish people, they still had their 
profession of the religion of Jehovah to 
fall back upon, in case of necessity. 
They boasted that he was with them, but 
it was an empty pretence while their pro- 
fession was insincere, being combined 
with the worship of idols. For the 
force of the conditional particle *%5x, 
perhaps, in such connection, compare 
Gen. xvi. 2, and ei &pa, Acts viii, 22. 
Comp. also Joel ii. 13, where the same 
idea is expressed by 974 "1, who know- 
eth? FO17 nN, the remainder of Jo- 
seph. For this use of the patronymic, 
see on ver. 6. Numerous as the Israel- 
ites still were, they might well be called 
a remainder, in consideration of the 
havoc made by Hazael, who, when “ the 
Lord began to cut”’ them “short, smote 
them in all the coasts of Israel; from 
Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, 
the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the 
Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the 
river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.’’ 
2 King x. 32, 33. 


16. 455, therefore, refers not to the 
contents of verses 14, 15, but to verses 
7, 10, and 12. We may suppose a con- 
siderable pause to intervene before ver. 
16. Foreseeing that the people would 
not repent, Jehovah here declares that the 
threatened punishment was inevitable. 
The slaughter involved in this punish- 
ment would be general. Samaria, how- 
ever, and its vicinity, seem specially 
intended. The position in which "278 
is here placed, is altogether unusual. 
Indeed, I am not aware that it is so 
found in any other passage. Yet I would 
not, with Newcome, cancel it, on the 
slender ‘authority of seven MSS. the 
LXX. Arab. and Syr. It seems rather 
to have been purposely added, in order 
to give greater solemnity to the sentence 
which was to be pronounced, niann, 
broad, or open places, or wide streets in 
a city; and distinguished from niz:n, 
which signify ordinary or narrow streets, 
such as are common in the East. - Gr. 
mAateia. “ED, Strictly means a smiting 


of the breast, (LXX. xomerds,) from 


"£0, to beat, smite ; see on Is, xxxii. 12. 
Here, however, it is used to denote 
wailing or mourning in general. im in, 
Oh! Oh! This onomatopoetic I have 
rendered by the corresponding English 
interjection, which, when prolonged and 
swelled in the pronunciation, as it is by 
persons giving utterance to excessive 


grief, is much more mppenpnate than 
oo 


Alas! Alas! Alas! Syr. 40 01 40 61; 
Chald. 54 55; Vulg. ve! ve! in other 








a a 


Cuap. V. 


AMOS. 


155 


17 In all the vineyards there shall be wailing, 
For I will pass through the midst of thee, 


Saith Jehovah. 


18 Wo unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! 
What is the day of Jehovah unto you? 
It shall be darkness and not light. 

19 As when one fleeth from a lion, 


And a bear meeteth him ; 


Or he entereth the house, and leaneth his hand on the wall, 


And a serpent biteth him. 


20 Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light ; 


Even thick darkness, without 


Latin versions, eheu! eheu! The =x, 
husbandmen, were to be called to partici- 
pate in the mourning, not as Newcome, 
- Rosenmiiller, and some others have 
thought, on account of the desolation 
of the fields, but either on account of 
the loudness of their rustic voices, or 
because the slaughter of the citizens of 
Samaria would be so great, that a suffi- 
cient number would not be left to per- 
form the funeral rites. Such construc- 
tion of the meaning is required by the 
following parallelism: *yti-—bx “Eo 
“m3. There is no necessity for suppos- 
ing that the words of this sentence have 
been transposed, and that they originally 
stood thus: tzt~—~by ng optim. The 
preposition dy is understood before TED, 
and a7p, as repeated to govern tx, 
which it often does, as well as the ac- 
cusative. "72 wailing, lamentation, from 


ms Syr. lous, to utter lamentable 


cries. The persons here spoken of as 
“skilled in wailing,” were mourners by 
profession, who were hired for the oc- 
casion, and sung doleful tunes around 
the corpse of a deceased person, which 
they preceded when it was carried to 
the grave, giving utterance to dismal cries 
and howlings, beating their breasts, 
throwing ashes on their heads, and 


showing every artificial token of ex-° 


cessive grief. These were the mourn- 
ers whom Solomon describes as going 
about the streets, Eccles. xii. 5. That 
females were especially employed on 


any brightness ? 


such occasions, appears from Jer. ix. 17- 
19, where "m3 is twice used as here by 
Amos. The same custom obtained 
among the Greeks and Romans. Thus 
Homer speaking of the funeral of Hector, 
Says : 





Tov wey ereita 

Tpnrois év Aexéecot Séoav, wapd dé efoay 
dodovs, 

Ophvev ekdpxous, ofre otovdecoay dodhv 

Oi wey &p eSphveov, emi bt ocrevdxovTo 
YUVaiKES- 

Iliad. xxiv. 720, ete. 


See also Horace de Arte Poet. ver. 433. 
In his edition of Harmer’s Observations, 
vol. iii, p. 42. Dr. A. Clarke gives a de- 
scription of the ancient funeral solem- 
nities of the Irish, and the translation of 
a song of wailing prepared for the occa- 
sion, which bears a strong resemblance 
to those used by the Orientals. Comp. 
Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, second — 
series, vol. ii. pp. 402-407. 

17. The vineyards, which usually ex- 
hibited scenes of rejoicing, should now 
be frequented by disconsolate mourners. 
For Jehovah’s passing through the land, 
comp. Exod. xii. 12, 23; only in the 
latter case the punishment was miracu- 
lously inflicted ; in the former, by ‘the 
king of Assyria, as an instrument in the 
hand of God. 

18-20, These verses intimately cohere 
with the preceding. The day of Jehovah 
means the time when his judgments 
should be inflicted. The Israelites could 
only have given expression sarcastically 


156 


AMOS. 


Cuap. V. 


21 I hate, I loathe your festivals ; 
Neither do I delight in your days of restraint, 
22 When ye offer to me holocausts and bloodless sacrifices, 
I will take no pleasure in them; 
Neither will I regard the thank-offerings of your fatlings, 
23 Take away from me the noise of the songs ; 
I will not hear the music of thy harps. 


to the wish that this day might soon 
reach them. It was an impious daring 
of Jehovah to do his worst. Comp. Is. y. 
19: Jer. xvii. 15. The prophet tells: 
them plainly that it would be to them a 
day of unmitigated affliction. The fal- 
lacy of every hope of escape is illustrated 
by two simple, but forcible comparisons, 
borrowed from the pastoral life. Bochart 
regards the language as proverbial, and 
supports his opinion by two Arabic sto- 


ries: the one beginning, Quas chy ' 
Syst cM Leal, Gry Glial 
Wo Linas | ERs ot LI 9 
Ls, 3% log, ‘A lion, pursuing 
aman, he took refuge in a tree, in the 
branches of which a bear having fixed 
himself, was plucking its fruit,” etc. ; 
and the other, a we >) a) 

« A man fled from a lion, and fell into 
a well, into which the lion went down 
after him. And there was a bear in the 
well,” etc. Hierozo. lib. iii. cap. ix. pp. 
810, 811. Kimchi tersely expresses the 
meaning thus, max $s msi insn, Ye 
shall go out of calamity into calamity. 
Comp. Job xx, 24; Is. xxiv. 18. The 
adjective ts is explained by the follow- 
ing words. It occurs only in this place; 
but the substantives mbox, tes, dense ob- 
scurity, are used in several passages of Job, 
the Psalms, and the prophets. rib-py, 
however, in the sense of concealed, occurs 
Exod. ix. 32, Comp. the Arab- \3f, 
occidit sol, etc. Thus in Hariri, Con- 
sess. xv. the noun yi is employed 


y5ly Xu dy plat! Val, iit 
Kage dy 9 % Lit, « Extirpatio erudi- 


tionis et obliteratio ejus: Lunarumque 
ac Solium ejusdem occasus.” #3 2, 0n the 
contrary, signifies to shine, be light; and 
its derivative 733 is used of the rising of 
the sun, Prov. iv. 18, and is contrasted 
with mes, ver. 19. 

21-23. The same aversion from the 
ceremonial observances of the insincere 
and rebellious Israelites which Jehovah 
here expresses, he afterwards employed 
Isaiah to declare to the Jews, chap. i. 


10-15. The two passages are strikingly. 


parallel; only the latter prophet ampli- 


fies what is set forth in a more condensed - 


form by Amos. It is also to be observed, 
that where Amos introduces the musical 
accompaniments of the sacrifices, Isaiah 
substitutes the prayers ; both concluding 
with the divine words, "22"y=s23y Nb 
yt, I will not hear. The verbs “nas 
»miond follow each other immediately, for 
the sake of more emphatically expressing 
the Divine abhorrence. Com. x7 mazhn 
"6 and "52 m2 in Isaiah. p-qy Nb, 
lit. I will not smell; but meaning here, 
I will take no delight in. minxy, res- 
traints, periods, days of restraint, or as- 
semblies collected on such days. See on 
Is, i. 18. by, used here collectively 
for the plural py2b%3.— “by son, lit. 
remove from upon me; conveying the 
idea of a burden which vexes and annoys 
the bearer. Isaiah expresses it in full: 
maid “ty om, “They are a burden 
upon “me.” Comp. further for the force 
of the compound preposition, Exod. x. 
28. The music here referred to was 
that performed at the Hebrew festivals 
by the Levites, before and during the 


a 








Cuap. V. 


24 Let justice roll on like water, 


AMOS. 


157 


And righteousness like a mighty stream. 
25 Did ye not present sacrifices and offerings to me, 


offering of the sacrifices, and on other 
public occasions. 

, 24, While no direction is given re- 
specting the regulation of the sacrifices, 
in order that they might be presented in 
an acceptable manner, a special injunc- 
tion is imparted in regard to justice and 
rectitude, on the principle that to obey is 
better than sacrifice, and to hearken than 
the fat of rams,’’ 1 Sam. xv. 22. ‘* Nec in 
victimis, licet optime sint, auroque pre- 
fulgeant, Deorum est honos, sed pia ac 
recte mente venerantium.” Seneca de 


Beneficiis, i. 6. That 77 “x, Arab. ,, 353 
perennis fuit, is to be here rendered per- 


ennial, or everflowing, and not mighty, 
has been maintained by some interpre- 
ters; but a comparison of the several 
passages in which it occurs, goes to show 


that it is rather to be referred to up 9 l, 


valida, fuit, multus fuit, and is to be 
rendered great or mighty. It thus better 
corresponds with tba, roll, to roll OM, 
used in the former hemistich. LXX. és 


xemdppos &Baros. Syr. 2. — 3 yal 
13 ddeas oe os torrens fortis, 


And Yc solyt! die, \ 


dbs like a Wady that cannot be 


passed. The ideas of abundance and 
moral power are those conveyed by the 
prophet. I must differ from Prof. Lee, 
who (Heb. Lex. in voce. ins) renders, 
“for judgment rolleth (away) as the 
waters (roll away), and righteousness 
(disappears) like the mighty torrent.” 
The verse as thus rendered ill suits the 
context, and is not in keeping with pa- 
rallel passages in which, after a repre- 
hension of hypocritical observances, the 
moral qualities of truth and righteous- 
ness are required. The construction put 

‘upon it by Theodoret, Kimchi, Munster, 
Veil, and Hitzig, that the coming of the 
Divine judgments is intended, is, for the 
same reasons, to be rejected. 


25-27. These verses have not a little 
perplexed expositors, both ancient and 
modern, The first difficulty lies in what 
is said respecting the presentation of 
sacrifices. Greve, Dahl, and Maurer, take 
the = in Dxnasn to be the article, and 
not the particle of interrogation, and 
render, the sacrifices and offerings ye 
presented to me, etc. viz. those pres- 
cribed in the law: but now ye bear the 
shrine, etc. According to this mode 
of construction, the present idolatrous 
course of the Israelites is contrasted 
with their former obedience to the 
Divine will. In order, however, to 
justify this interpretation, the article 

must have been repeated before mrs, 
which it is not. The insertion of the 
compensative Dagesh in the letter Zain 
cannot be pleaded in its favor, since 
there are several instances in which the 
interrogative = takes the form of the 
article, before words beginning with 
Sheva, as 337, Gen, xvii. 17; "aa", 
Ezek. xviii. 29; daa, Joel iv. 4, ete. 
The ancient ‘tiioaetacs have all read in- 
terrogatively. LXX. M) oodyim kad 
tirtes mpemart yea pol, K. T. A. ay 


fee 


oA Dpo Lissaco Lass [sods 
was. Vulg. Numquid hostias et sacri- 


ficia obtulistis mihi, etc. 'Targ, mos: 

NBM "STE, PPAY. TIBTP) PS Tp. 
And go almost all the moderns, some of 
whom suppose the force of the question 
to lie in »5, to me, taken emphatically, 
«‘ Was it to mz,” etc. while others think 
that an absolute denial of the presenta- 
tion of sacrifices in the wilderness is im- 
plied in the words. In support of the 
latter opinion, it has been attempted to 
prove, that the Israelites could not have 
offered any sacrifices for want of cattle. 
Such a position, however, is contrary to 
the express declarations found in Exod. 
xii, 38, xvii. 3, xxxiv. 3; Lev. xvii. 1-9. 
Num. vii. passim, xx. 4, 19. The life 
which they led in the desert was that of 
Nomades, so that there could have been 


158 


AMOS. 


Cuar. V. 


During forty years in the desert, O house of Israel ? 
26 And yet ye bare the shrine of your king, 


no lack of animals for sacrifice. The 
true construction of the passage is found- 
ed on the principle, that not unfrequently 
in Hebrew the interrogation implies, 
and calls for an emphatic affirmative, 
either expressed or understood; and is 
thus equivalent to a negative interroga- 
tion in our language, and indeed to xbn 
in Hebrew. Sce 1 Sam. ii. 27, 28; Job 
xx. 4; Jer. xxxi. 20; Ezek. xx. 4. In 
the present case, as in these just cited, 
the persons addressed are supposed to 
admit the fact couched in the appeal ; 
but the question is so put in order the 
more forcibly to introduce the adversative 
sentence which follows in the 26th verse. 
The connection of the two verses is this: 
“Did ye not present sacrifices and 
offerings to me in the wilderness forty 
years, O house of Israel? Yes; and yet 
ye bare the shrine,” etc. That the con- 
junction 4 is frequently to be rendered 
and yet, but yet, or the like, see Gen, 
xvii. 21; Judges xvi. 15: Ps. 1. 17; Is, 
liii. 7. What is here charged upon the 
ancient Israelites was their indulging in 
idolatrous practices while they pro- 
fessedly attended to the ritual observ- 
ances of the Mosaic law — the very sin 
which Amos was commissioned to charge 
upon their descendants in his day, and on 
account of which they were to be carried 
into captivity. The opinion of Forsayeth 
(quoted by Newcome), Dahl, and others, 
that the sin reproved in ver. 26 was 
exclusively that of those who lived in the 
time of the prophet, is less admissible 
than that which refers to their ances- 
tors, yet so that the reproof was intended 
to be applied on their own case by those 
whom the prophet addressed. — The 26th 
verse has been very differently rendered, 
as well as variously interpreted. The 


translation of the LXX. is as follows: - 


Kal dveAdBete thy oxnvhy Tod Moddx, 
kal 71d &oTpov Tod Seod buadv ‘Paday, 
_ Tovs tUrous adra@y, ods érothoare eavTots; 
as if the Hebrew had read, rx pnsiy2s 
yvp Cade spip mer qb maze 
:b5> onwy nbs Exnods. No vestige, 
however, of any such order of the words 


is found in any Hebrew MS., or in any 
other monument of antiquity, except the 
speech of Stephen, as recorded by Luke, 
Acts vii. 43, which is an almost verbal 
quotation from the LXX. Theod. ren- 
ders thus: Kal #pare thy Spacw Tod Ba- 
TiAdws duav, dyatpwow eciddrAwv spar, 
totpov Tod Seod jua@y; so that he must 
have read the words as they now stand 
in the Hebrew text. The same may be 
said of the Syr., Vulg., and Targ., though 
their renderings differ from each other in 
one or two minor particulars. The re- 
mark of Jerome on the discrepancies be- 
tween the Hebrew text and the ancient 
Greek versions deserves to be quoted 
here: “ Observandum est, apostolos et 
apostolicos viros in ponendis testimoniis 
de Veteri Testamento, non verba consid- 
erare sed sensum, nec eadem sermonum 
calcare vestigia, dummodo a sententiis 
non recedant.” Comment. in loc. Most 
interpreters follow the LXX. in giving 
nas® by oxnvd, a tent ; deriving it, like 
m2d, and 55, of the same signification, 
from ‘53>, ¢o intertwine, as branches, so as 
to form a booth or hut. Others, such as 
Jarchi, Calvin, Mercer, and Rosenmiiller, 
take it to mean an image or idol, and 
render, Siceuth your king. They explain 
it by referring to the Chald. xnoo, a 
wooden post, which they suppose formed 
the pedestal on which the idol stood, 
and so the word might be transferred to 
the idol itself. Ewald takes much the 
same view. The former derivation is 
alone admissible. The text appears to 
have had something of the texture, as it 
had the design of the oxnvijs iepas, 
sacred tent, in the Carthaginian camp, 
mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, lib. xx. 
cap. 25, and described as consisting é« 
KaAduou kat xéprov, of reeds and grass. 
Comp. Wilkinson’s Ancient Egypt, sec- 
ond series, vol. ii. pp. 270-275. Only, 
as it is certain Moses would not have 
tolerated anything of the kind if its size 
had been such as to bring it to his 
cognizance, it may be inferred, that it 
was only a small temple or shrine, which 
might easily be concealed in the interior 











Cuapr. V. 


AMOS. 


And Chiun of your images, the star of your god, 


Which ye made for yourselves. 


of a tent. Such diminutive temples were 
in use among the Egyptians, from whom 
no doubt the Hebrews took the idea. 
Herodotus, describing an idol worshipped 
at Papremis, says, 7d St a&yadua édv 
év NHQi: MIKPQ: tvaAlyp karaxexpvow- 
bévy mpoexkoul(ovar: tH mpotepaln és 
&AAO otknua ipdv, “The image, being in 
a small temple of gilt wood, they carry 
out on the previous day to another sacred 
habitation.” Compare the vaol dpyvpot, 
shrines, or small temples of Diana, 
mentioned Acts xix, 24. That any 
connection is to be traced between mizd, 
Siccuth, and nica ni30, Succoth- benoth, 
2 Kings xvii. 30, the tents in which the 
daughters of the Babylonians prostituted 
themselves in worship of Venus, does not 
appear. C2251, your king, thus Symm. 
Theodot. and Leo J uda, and most 
moderns ; but the LXX. Modd x, Syr. 


Soaants, Maleum, Aq. Méaxeu, Vulg. 
Moloch, exhibit the word as the proper 
name of the god of the Ammonites, 7. e. 
F23 also called p12, Milcom, 1 Kings 
xi. 5, and pai, Maleam, Zeph. i. 5; 

and this construction some moderns have 
adopted ; but as 55%, Aing, is also em- 
ployed by the Hebrews in application to 
idols, Is. xxxvii. 13, Zeph. i. 5, it is bet- 
ter to retain its usual signification. The 
Phoenicians gave the title of >» sb, 
king of at world, to the sun, and 
map qba=nopbn, king of the city, to 
Hercules. Coane Zed diva. Iliad. iii. 351, 
xvi. 233; and 7Q"vak HAS map’ hucas 
ixérns, Herod. I, 159. In Ethiopic 


(\ PNG), Amiak, the proper name 
for God, is derived from ® ()f J, 


peravit, rexit, and is applied in the plural 
to idols. The learned are generally 
agreed, that the Moloch of Scripture 
was the image of the planet Saturn, and 
thus identical with Chiwn, mentioned 
by Amos in the following clause of the 
verse. The Pheenicians were in the 
habit of offering to him human sacrifices, 


especially children, to which horrible 
custom repeated reference is made in the 
historical books of the Old ‘Testament. 
See Michaelis on the laws of Moses, Art. 
cexlvii. Suppl. No. 1115; Selden de 
Diis Syris, cap. vi. ; Spencer de Legibus 
Hebreor. lib. ii. cap. 10; Gesenius, in 
his Thesaurus, swb voc.; Winer, Real- 
worter-buch. p>%>x 422, Chiun of 
your images, i. e. represented by them; 
the model after which they were made. 
While the idol so called, which the 
Hebrews carried about in a sacred shrine, 
was itself a symbol or representative of 
one of the heavenly bodies, it was in its 
turn represented by a number of copies, 
or smaller images, which they used as 
penates or household gods in the practice 
of astrology. Such appears to me to 
be the meaning of the words. To this 
construction, however, C. B. Michaelis, 
Vitringa, Rosenmiiller, Hesselberg, Heng- 
stenberg, and others object, that it makes 
> a proper name, which, with the 
older grammarians, they allege cannot 
be put in regimen. But to this rule, it 
must be admitted, there are many excep- 
tions, as MinnYy, jie $y3a,73 523, 
DAs, MIEN nbs, nixax nin, DIB, 

po? , etc. Nor can it ‘justly be object- 
ed that as mizd is an appellative, 43>> 
being parallel to it, must necessarily be 
the same. The necessity of the case 
is not obvious. Both are mentioned as 
objects which the Hebrews carried about 
for idolatrous purposes, —the one, the 
portable temple of the idol; the other 
the idol itself placed in this temple, of 
which numerous miniature resemblances 
were privately distributed throughout 
the camp. The LXX. unquestionably 
regarded the word as a proper name, 
whatever they may thereby have intend- 
ed to designate. And this view of the 
subject is confirmed by 2215, @ star, be- 
ing put in apposition with 4:°5, in order 
to explain it, an explanation which can- 
not apply, if by the latter term we un- 
derstand merely the pedestal or stand on 
which the idol was placed, It is now 


160 


AMOS. 


Cuap. VY. 


27 Therefore, I will carry you away captive beyond Damascus, 


almost a settled point, that by "1-2, Chiun, 
the planet Saturn is meant. If we except 


the Syr., which reads ole, Kevon, the 


earliest authorities which we have for 
this interpretation of the passage are the 
rabbins Abenezra and Kimchi; but their 
testimony as relating to a matter of 
fact is irrefragable, however slightingly 
Hengstenberg seems to treat it, Authen, 
des Pentat. p. 113. The former thus 
comments upon the passage: 91"> mb 
Akv> Nit [5 On Ba base? jiwha yim 
pds 15 wy 2D oMav sin, “ And as for 
the term Chiun, it is known in the Ara- 
bic and Persic languages by the’ name 
Kivan, which is Saturn, to which they 
made an image.” And the latter, in 
nearly the same words: "maw 2525 Nin 
Wer> 09b1 bxvnw? yiwda Raps 453, 
‘‘It is the star Saturn, and thus he is 
called Kivan in the Arabic and Persic.”’ 


6) ys Keiwan, seems to have been 


adopted from the latter into the former 
of these languages, in the Lexicons of 
which, as a foreign word, it is explained 
by Ua: , the usual name for Saturn in 
Arabic. “ It occurs in the Persian work 
entitled Dabistan, the author of which, 
describing the temples which the ancient 
Persians dedicated to the planets says: 


Kaw I Nolet end Oy 
Sli, that “the image of Keiwan was 


of black stone.” Lee’s Hebrew Lex. in 
voc. mas. He speaks, in fact, of the 


wala, shrine, and yee » tmage, of 


the planet, just as Amos does of miso 
and 73%>. According to the Zendavesta 
the seven planets are Tir, Behram, Ac- 
huma, Anahid, Kewan, Gurtsher, and 
Dodidom Mushewer. Bundehesh. V. 
In the codex Nasareus, containing the 
doctrines of the Sabzeans, which was 


published by Norberg, we find a list of 


the demons which rule these planets, 


v ° v 
th 
among whom ,@ao PONS ry the 
Jifth is Kivan, p, 54. It is afterwards 


added in the same page : es 
|easce josoas yams Lud? 
cones cada} |Akxcasolo 
JAeay —e Let} Atead 
emashy «The demons of Kivan in- 


ject lamentation, weeping and mourning 
into the hearts of men, and rob them of 
happiness.”” And we farther read, p. 212, 


ould? |Zoalo —— oes 
japoo 4 ss lost, “To Kivan is 


attributed malice, because from it come 
diminution and want.” Ascribing the 
same evil influence to Saturn, the Arabs 


likewise give to it the name of si i] 


ye SN} , the great disaster ; and the idea 


frequently occurs in the Latin classics, 
See Lucan i. 650; Juven. vi. 569; Ma- 
crob. Saturn. i. 19. IPfthe Hebrew 41-5 
be pointed 41°, the exact pronuncia- 
tion of the name of the planet in the other 
Oriental dialects will be brought out, and 
thus the evidence of identity be complete. 
With respect to‘ Paipay, the rendering 
of the LXX., or‘ Péday, as it is to be spelt, 
on the authority of the best MSS., Acts 
vii. 43, there is every reason to believe 
that they mistook > for -, as they have 
done in other instances; and so have 
given Rephan, instead of Kephan. That 
PH@AN should occur in the Arabico- 
Coptic table of the planets exhibited by 
Kircher in his Ling. A’gypt. Restit. p. 49, 
by no means proves that this was the 
ancient Egyptian name of Saturn; for 
as that table is of no great antiquity, and 
as the other names are chiefly derived 
from the Greek, we may reasonably in- 
fer that the one in question was copied 
from the Coptic version of this very pas- 
sage of the LXX. At all events, no 
such name of a deity has yet been found 
in the Egyptian pantheon. a5", the 








teeth ln 


ee ee 


Le sy ee ee 


Cuap. VI. 


AMOS. 161 


Saith Jehovah: God of hosts is his name. 


star, is expletive of 3:95, in so far as it in- 
forms us that the figure of the idol was 
that of a star, and thus proves the idola- 
trous worship to have been the Sabzean, 
with which the Hebrews became ac- 
quainted during their stay in the Ara- 
bian desert. 

27. Instead of pyratd mudme, LXX. 
eréxewva. REMI, , beyond Damas- 
cus,” with which all the other authori- 
ties agree, Stephen has éméxewa BaBvu- 
Aavos, beyond Babylon,” Acts vii. 43, 
obviously by way of interpretation. mybn 
naturally suggests the idea of remote- 
ness, though it is sometimes used in re- 
ference to what is at no great distance. 


Root xpm, Arab. ‘hss, recessit, Syr. 


a7 > 
\wodsa, removit, elongavit. The > 


added is paragogic. While what Amos 
states is included in the statement made 
by the proto-martyr, the latter embraces. 
what was known from fact to be the ful- 
filment of the prophecy: the Israelites 
having been carried, not merely beyond 
Damascus, but beyond Babylon, into the 
country of the Medes. The chapter 
closes with a vindication of the supre- 
macy of Jehovah above all the objects of 
Sabeean worship : inv mings on DR 
God of Sabaoth is his name 1. 





CHAPTER VI. 


THIS chapter embraces the character and punishment of the whole Hebrew nation. The 
inhabitants of the two capitals are directly addressed in the language of denunciation, and 
charged to take warning from the fate of other nations, 1,2. Their carnal security, in- 
justice, self indulgence, sensuality, and total disregard of the divine threatenings, are next 
described, 3-6; after which the prophet announces the captivity, and the calamitous cir- 
cumstances connected with the siege of Samaria, by which it was to be preceded, 7-11. He 
then exposes the absurdity of their conduct, and threatens them with the irruption of an 
enemy, that should pervade the whole country, 12-14. 





1 Wo to them that are at ease in Zion, 
And to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria ; 
The distinguished men of the first nations, 


1. Though chiefly directed against the 
northern of the two kingdoms, the 
language of this prophecy is so con- 
structed as to apply to both: and in the 
present verse express mention is made 
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who 
resembled those of Samaria in careless- 
ness and carnal security. j233 and nu3 
are similarly connected at applied, Is, 
xxx. 9, 11; so that the rendering of the 
LXX. rots ZouSevodar Sidr, adopted by 

21 


Dathe, cannot be justified. For the 
primary meaning of jx, compare the 


- cognate 42%, m Niphal, to lean, lean up- 


on, trust. The reduplicate Nun expresses 
intensity. 2p has here the acceptation 


of the Arab. rAd, rerum gentis ad- 
ministrator, princeps gentis : from rk 
perfodit, creatus est; creatus fuit dux. 
Whence also xoLis, prefectura, The 
Hebrew phrase bya ap3, to be marked, 


162 AMOS. 


Cuar. VI. 


To whom the house of Israel come! 


2 Pass over to Calneh, and see ; 


And go thence to Hamath the great ; 

Go down also to Gath of the Philistines : 

Were they better than these kingdoms ? 

Were their boundaries more ample than yours ? 
3 Wo to them that put off the day of evil, 


distinguished by name, is always used in 
reference to persons who had been chosen 
or designated for some special service. 
Num. i. 17 ; 1 Chron, xii. 31, xvi. 41; 
2 Chron. xxviii. 15, xxxi.19. The term 
is here employed for the purpose of speci- 
fying more particularly the leading men 
in the two kingdoms, whose profligacy 
and irreligion preéminently aggravated 
the national guilt. By nviam moda we 
are not, with Newcome, to understand 
*‘ the chief of the idolatrous nations,’’ and 
that the persons spoken of were called 
after them, but the Hebrew nation, which 
is so called because it was the principal, or 
most distinguished of all the nations of 
the earth; having been constituted the 
peculiar people of God, and possessing 
laws and privileges unknown to any 
other. It might well be said to occupy 
the first rank. Comp. ¢o2 na nS, 
Num. xxiv. 20, where the reference is to 
the distinguished place which the Amale- 
kites held among the nations of Canaan. 
tb is to be construed with mraz3, and 
not with 0°43, or with j49x and jinn. 
The people of Israel were in the habit of 
going up to their princes and leaders for 
the decision of differences, etc. They 
exerted an influence over the entire 
people. Both the LXX. and the Syr. 
are greatly at fault in the translation of 
this verse. 

2. Three heathen cities are here 
selected as specimens of the greatness 
and prosperity of the nations to which 
they belonged, and the Israelites are 
challenged to institute a comparison of 
the circumstances of these nations and 
the extent of their territory, with those 
of their own, as also, to reflect on the 
present prostrate condition of the cities 
mentioned, in order that they might 


become sensible of the superiority with. 


which Jehovah had distinguished them, 
and the greater punishment to which they 
had exposed themselves by their ungrate- 
fulreturns. For 7252, Calneh, and men, 
Hamath, see on Is. x. 9. Hitzig at- 
tempts to prove that by the latter name, 
nnn, Ecbatana or Hamedan is meant ; 
but there is no reason to believe that the 
Hebrews had any knowledge of this city 
in the days of Amos. It is here called 
ma, great, not to distinguish it from 
other cities of the same name, but to ex- 
press its size and magnificence. Comp. 
may pis, Sidon the great, Josh. xi. 8. 
m3, Gath, was the chief city of one of the 
five satrapies of the Philistines, with 
whose name it is here associated, to 
distinguish it from Gath-Hepher, and 
Gath-Rimmon. It had more than once 
been reduced before the time of Amos, 
and disappeared at an early period from 
the annals of geography. No trace of it 


has been discovered by any modern trav- | 


eller. The m int"3 4507 has been regarded 
as the Article by the LXX., Syr., and 
Vulg. translators, and is thus found in 
twelve of De Rossi’s MSS. ; but the more 
natural construction is that of the Targ. 
and most modern versions, which makes 
it interrogative. Before the 772 of com- 
parison is an ellipsis of mim}; and 
nisdaran, moxm, these kingdoms, must 
be understood as designating those of Is- 
rael and Judah, with which the prophet 
had immediately to do, and to which he 
thus emphatically points. In this way 
only can an appropriate reference be 
found for the distinctive affixes in 5:23 
and pda. ; 

3. Supply “in, wo to, from ver. 1. 
te=2%en, the Targ, not inappropriately 
explains by 7°71177, remove to a distance. 


The root is 773, which in the other dia- - 








eS 


PO: 


—_— a 


_—— 


ay oe 


a a ee CL Sls 


=, 


ee ee 





: 
by 
7 
: 
: 
: 





abot RE A ae 


Cuar. VI. 


AMOS. 


163 


And bring near the seat of oppression ; 


4 That lie upon beds of ivory, 


And are stretched upon their couches ; 


That eat lambs fr om the flock, 


And calves from the midst of the stall; 
5 That strike up songs to the sound of the lyre; 
Like David they invent for themselves instruments of music ; 


6 That drink in bowls of wine, 


And anoint with the first of oils; 
But are not grieved for the destruction of Joseph! 


lects signifies to separate, remove as an 
object of disgust. Aq. of droxexwpiope- 
vo, Symm. apwpicuévot. The persons 
addressed could not bear the idea that 
the period of threatened punishment was 
impending; they endeavored as much 
as possible to keep it out of view. Comp. 
Ezek. xii. 21-28. In striking antithesis 
to this, they are represented in the fol- 
lowing hemistich, as acting in such a 
manner as speedily to bring it upon 
them. 
“Sed quam ccecus inest vitiis amor ? 
omne futurum 
Despicitur, suadentque brevem presentia 
fructum ; 
Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido, 
Dum mora supplicii lucro, serumque 
quod instat 
Creditur.” 
Claud. Eutrop. lib. ii. 
I cannot agree with Jerome, Grotius, 
Newcome, Justi, and some others, in 
referring d'2M naw, the seat or throne of 
oppression, ‘to the rule of the king of 
Assyria: it is more natural to regard 
the prophet as describing the wickedness 
of the people themselves in yielding 
support to a system of flagrant injustice 
and oppression, on the part of their own 


rulers and judges. Thus most expositors.: 


maw occurs nowhere else in the sense of 
throne; but ay>, of which it is properly 


the infinitive, is used in application both. 


to kings and judges, as is also the par- 
ticiple agi. The term is synonymous 
with xo, which is also used both of the 
throne and the bench. wan is here 
taken by most interpreters to have the 
‘same signification as in Kal, to approach ; 


but as in every other instance in which 
the verb is used in Hiphil it vindicates 
to itself the causative acceptation, and 
in the present case is obviously intended 
to form a contrast to p°"12%, which con- 
veys the idea of removing to a distance, I 
must retain the rendering of our common 
version. ‘Thus Hitzig and Ewald. The 
meaning is, that instead of putting away 
from them all illegal and oppressive 
judgment, they encouraged those who 
were guilty of them, by assisting in car- 
rying them into execution. 

4. For 73 niwia, beds of ivory, see on 
chap. iii. 15 ; and comp. Jecti eburnet of 
Horace, and lecti eborati of Plautus, 


penne, from 110, Arab. oye libere 


dismisit, to be thrown negligently along, 
is descriptive of the self-indulgent mode 
in which the Orientals recline upon their 
sofas or couches, being stretched upon 
them at full length. The whole verse 
sets forth in well chosen expressions the 
luxurious habits of the opulent. LXX. 
KATAOTATAA@VTES. 

5, 6. 1B is a drat Aey., and has been 
thought by Gesenius, Hitzig, and Ewald, 
to have been selected on purpose, instead 
of “121, ¢o sing, in order to express the 
contempt in which the music deserved 
to be held. Such interpretation, how- 
ever, does not appear to be philologically 
sustained, and ill suits the corresponding 
hemistich. According to the LXX. 
émixpatobyres, presiding over, or at, the 
verb is synonymous with py 2» in Piel, to 
superintend, lead in music. Hence 
Misi, the chief musician. Comp. the 


Arab. bys, prevertit, precessit. The 


164 


AMOS. 


Cuap. VI. 


7 Therefore now they shall go captive at the head of the captives, 
And the shouting company of those that recline shall depart. 
8 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, 
Thus saith Jehovah, God of hosts, 


I abhor the splendor of Jacob, 


And I hate his palaces : 


Therefore will I deliver up the city, and all that is in it. 
9 It shall be, that if ten men should be left in one house, 


persons reprobated were so passionately 
fond of song, that they could not be 
content to listen to the performances of 
professed musicians, but took the lead in 
striking up songs to the sound of the 
lyre. ‘The reference to David, who was 
the sweet singer of Israel, and of whose 
musical instruments express mention is 
made Neh. xii 36, is manifestly iron- 
ical; implying that, while that monarch 
devoted his musical talent to the glory 


of God, the dissipated grandees of Israel . 


consulted only their personal gratification, 
and that of those who joined their giddy 
circle p*prt72, were properly basins, or 
bowls, of a larger size, used for sacrificial 
purposes, Exod. xxxviil. 3; Num. vii. 
13, 19. The persons referred to, indulged 
to such excess, that ordinary cups were 
unsuited to their compotations, They 
likewise anointed themselves with the 
most precious oils, and evinced a total 
apathy in regard to the calamities to 
which their people had already been 
suhject, or the still more serious evils 
which threatened them. For the mean- 
ing of 504°, Joseph, see on chap. v. 6. 
7. mrt, Arab, 5 ys vox, the shout 


or cry, in which the merrymakers in- 
dulged over their cups. The persons giv- 
ing the shout seem to be intended, and, as 
the term is also used in reference to a 
cry of lamentation, Jer, xvi. 5, it may 
be implied that their joy would be turned 
into sorrow. They are spoken of col- 
lectively. Symm. éraipela rpvdnrav. 
Those who had taken the lead in revelry 
and all manner of wickedness, were to 
he first in the procession of captives. In 
such a position, their disgrace would be 
more conspicuous, 


8. The double form of asseveration 
here employed is unusual, and is strongly 
emphatic. ssn, the Piel participle of 
ann, a root of the same signification with 
azn. Compare for a similar interchange 
of these letters bya and as , 83 and 
visa. Though the phrase 3° — jis, the 
excellency of Jacob, cannot be otherwise 
understood than of God himself, as the 
only legitimate object of glorying on the 
part of his people, chap. viii. 7, yet, in 
the present instance, it is to be taken in 
application to the country and peculiar 
privileges of the Hebrews. It was once 
a country piously celebrated in song as 
the excellency of Jacob, Ps. xlvii. 5, and 
the peculiar object of divine regard; but 
now defiled by the wickedness of its in- 
habitants, it had become the object of 
his abhorrence. By ->y, the city, Amos 
had most probably Samaria in his eye. 
Hitzig attaches to "m=aon, the significa- 
tion of Kal, to besiege, shut up, but the 
usual Hiphil signification better agrees 
with the following connection. sb, 
fulness, conveys the idea of multitude, 
or great abundance, and comprehends 
here both the numerous inhabitants 
themselves, and the wealth and means 
of gratification in which they abounded. 
Comp. Ps, xxiv. 1. For the accomplish- 
ment of the prediction, see 2 Kings xvii. 
5, 6. 

9, 10. The scene is not necessarily 
laid in the city ; it might also have been 
realized in any of the towns or villages 
in the country that had been depopu- 
lated by the Assyrians. It depicts, in 
the most affecting manner, the deplorable 
condition of the few that had escaped 
the cnemy, and had now been attacked 
by the plague—a usual attendant on 








Se 





Cuar. VI. 


They also shall die. 


AMOS. 


165 


10 And one’s relative, even he that burneth him shall take him up, 
To remove his bones out of the house ; 
And shall say to him that is in the innermost ok of the house, 


Is there yet any with thee; 
And he shall say, None! 
Then shall he say, Hush! 


For we must not mention the name of J dtisvahi 


11 


For behold! Jehovah hath commanded, 


And he will smite the great house with breaches, 
And the small house with fissures. 


war in the East. The prophet declares, 
that if as many as ten had been left in 
one house, which might be regarded as 
a rare instance, they should die, one 
after another, of this fatal disease. 7117 
is not here to be taken in the special 
sense of unele, but denotes any near 
relative on whom it devolved to attend 
to the funeral rites. Targ. w>a-np. -Vulg. 
propinguus, In the present case, such 
would be the paucity of hands, that he 
“would have to perform the whole him- 
self. The copulative 1, prefixed to *B 07, 
is epexegetical, and is to be rendered 
even, as in Zech. ix. 9. Instead of 5757, 
many both of Kennicott’s and De Rossi's 
MSS. read pacha swe. But comp. 


the Syr. 250 Some have attempted 


to prove from this, and some other pas- 
sages, that it was the practice of the 
Hebrews to burn their dead. But what 
is said 2 Chron. xvi. 14, xxi. 19; Jer. 
xxxiv. 5, obviously refers to the burning 
of spices, and not of dead bodies. 1 Sank. 

xXxxi. 12, and our present text, exhibit 
special cases. In the former of these, 
the object was so to dispose of the 
corpses that it might not be in the 
power of the Philistines further to dis- 
honor them; while in the latter, it was 
either, as Grotius supposes, to prevent 
contagion, or to dispose of the body in 
the only way of which the circumstances 
of the time would allow. That by DSEy, 

not mere bones are meant, nor bodies so 
emaciated as to be nothing but skin and 
bone, which is Winer’s opinion, but dead 
gy seems established beyond all 


doubt by a reference to Gen. 1. 25; 
Exod. xiii. 19; 2 Kings xiii. 21; Jer. 
Vill. 1,2. n° ait 's13973, is well rendered 
in the Vulg. in penetralibus domus. See 
on Is, xiv. 18. Having burnt and re- 
moved one body after another, the rela- 
tive, discovering a patient in one of the 
innermost rooms or corners of the house, 
inquires whether he is the only survivor? 
and on receiving for answer that he is, 
he suddenly enjoins silence upon him. 
There is some difficulty in dertermining 
what occasioned this injunction, and 
for what reason the Divine name was 
not to be mentioned. Most probably 
the patient had begun to give vent to 
his feelings in expressions of praise to 
Jehovah, for sparing his life in the midst 
of such prevailing mortality ; when the 
other, from some superstitious notion, or 
from the supposed incongruity of prais- 
ing God in such circumstances, iuter- 
rupted his pious effusions. pyz “"=37) 
means to mention, or record with appro- 
bation, as an object of trust. Comp. 
Josh. xxiii. 7; Ps, xx. 8. The phrase 
cannot, therefore, be construed into the 
language of despair — as if. the person 
who gave utterance to the words be- 
sought God to take him away likewise, 
and thus terminate the melancholy scene. 
Nor, for the same reason, can it imply, 
as Michaelis interprets, that he had 
confirmed what he had Stated with an 
oath. 

11. Grotius, Dahl, Justi, and Ewald, 
adopt the interpretation of the Targ. 
Jerome, and Cyril, that by the « great 
house” is meant the kingdom of Isracl, 


166 


AMOS. 


Cuap. VI. 


12 Shall horses run upon a rock ? 
Will one plough there with oxen ? 
Yet we have converted justice into poison, 
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood, 
13 Ye that rejoice in a thing of nought, 


That say, 


Have we not by our own strength, 


Taken to ourselves horns ? 


14 But behold! I will raise up against you, O house of Israel! 
A nation, saith Jehovah, God of hosts ; 


And they shall oppress you, 


From the entrance of Hamath, 


To the river of the desert. 


and by the ‘small house’’ that of Judah; 
and comp. chap. ix. 8, 9, where the 
same participial form 3,47 is employed 
as here before another verb. pot", 
mean atoms, or the minute parts to which 
the materials of a building are reduced, 
when it is utterly destroyed. The word 
otherwise signifies the small drops of any 
liquid that is sprinkled, and is derived 
from 001, fo sprinkle. Dos"pa, are Jis- 
sures, OF rents in an edifice, which threat- 
en its fall. There was to bea markad dif- 
ference in the treatment of the two king- 
doms; the one was to be utterly de- 
stroyed, while the other, though greatly 
injured, was still to stand. Rosenmiiller, 
however, regards the interpretation as 
‘‘arguta magis, quam vera.” Calvin, 
Vatablus, Marckius, Cocceius, Lowth, 
Michelis, and Maurer, likewise take the 
words literally, as applying to the houses 
both of the rich and the poor. The 
destruction, more or Jess, was to be uni- 
versal. 

‘«‘Regum turres ac pauperum tabernas.”’ 

Horace. 
This construction of the verse is con- 
firmed by a comparison with chap. iii, 
15. 

12. The folly of expecting real pros- 
perity while committing acts of injustice, 
is forcibly represented by comparing it 
to the absurdity of attempting to run 
horses upon a rock, or to plough it with 


oxen. To add to the strength of the 
representation, it is put in the interroga- 
tive form. win is to be taken im- 
personally. 

13. The participles, with the ; demon- 
strative, are again employed as in verses 
3, 4, 5,6. "27 xb, non-re, what is so 
perishable and evanescent, that it may 
well be said to have no existence. Horns 
are the symbol of power and dominion. 

14. Few instances will be found in 
Hebrew, in which the object of a verb 
is so far removed from it as »*5 here is 
from py. Some have referred tp 
M277, the river of the Desert, to the 
Rhinocorura, otherwise called the river of 
Egypt; and others to “ the brook of the 
willows,” D-anrn “M2, or the Wady el- 
Ahsa, which flows into the Dead Sea, 
near Zoar; but it is obvious from 2 
Kings xiv. 25, in which the limits here 
specified are described as constituting 
those of the kingdom of the ten tribes, 
that it must mean the brook Kidron, 
which falls into the Dead Sea to the 
south of Jericho. One of the names given 
to this sea is manzyn D2, the Sea of the 
Desert ; "372m, the desert, forming 


hat i nly called 
what is now commonly pl, 


El-Ghor, or the low sterile region in 
which the valley of the Jordan ter- 
minates, and which extends as far as the 
Elanitic Gulf. 








Crap. VII. AMOS. 167 


CHAPTER VII.—VIIILI. 3. 


TuIs portion of the book contains four symbolical visions respecting successive judgments 
that were to be inflicted on the kingdom of Israel. They were delivered at Bethel, and 
in all probability at the commencement of the prophet’s ministry. Each of them, as they 
follow in the series, is more severe than the preceding. The first presented to the mental 
eye of the prophet a swarm of young locusts, which threatened to cut off all hope of the . 
harvest, 1-8; the second, a fire, which effected an universal conflagration, 4-6; the third, 
a plumb-line, ready to be applied to mark out the edifices that were to be destroyed, 7-9; 
and the fourth, a basket of ripe fruit, denoting the near and certain destruction of the 
kingdom, viii. 1-8. The intervening eight verses, which conclude the seventh chapter, 
contain an account of the interruption of Amos by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, whose 
punishment is specially predicted. In point of style, this portion differs from that of the 





rest of the book, being almost exclusively historical and dialogistic. 





1 ‘Tuus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and, behold, he formed 
locusts at the beginning of the shooting up of the latter grass: 
and, behold, it was the latter grass after the king’s mowings. 

2 And it came to pass, when they had entirely devoured the 


grass of the land, I said: 


1, All the four visions are introduced 
in nearly the same language : "38975 n> 
mami mim ot. The repetition of Dat 
behold, is “peculiar to this verse. In the 
latter of the two instances, it is employed 


for the sake of emphasis, instead of the 


substantive verb, »25, a name of the lo- 
cust, occurring only here, and Nah. iii. 17, 
and synonymous with fo , Is. xxxiii, 4, 


Comp. the Arab. wl and ol: 


locusta, from ber egressus €, in 
reference to its coming forth out of the 
egg, which had been deposited in the 
earth to be hatched. The term is, there- 
fore, strictly descriptive of the locust in 
its caterpillar state, and thus agrees with 
the use of the verb “x, ¢o form, which 


is here used. Prof. Lee derives it from 


ws>> secuit, Credner on Joel, pp. 


299-302, elaborately attempts to set 
aside the above derivation of Bochart, 
yet allows that the word denotes the 
insect in the first stage of its existence. 
The plural termination *~, is found in 
several masculine nouns, pr “71, "2ibn, 


“prich, etc. ; but the anomaly has not yet 
been satisfactorily accounted for. See, 
however, Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 523. Lee’s 
Heb, Gram. Art. 139, 4, 2d edit. ph, 
an after-math, or second crop, which 
comes up immediately after the aes 
of grass. wp>, cognate with vps, Arab. 


bs, legit, collegit, signifies in Piel to 
gather the late fruit. Comp. the Syr. 


° 
Lao, serotinus, and wip br, the latter 
‘ 4 


rain. The phrase + sb%er1 "42 may either 
mean the mowings of the grass which 
grew on the royal domains, or the first 
mowings of that belonging to the people, 
to which the king tyrannically laid 
claim. Considering the character of the 
times, there can be little doubt that the 
latter are meant. 

2. That the locusts here referred to 
are not intended to represent a literal 
swarm of these insects, but are to be 
taken figuratively, as denoting a hostile 
army, just as the fire in the second 


‘vision is to be regarded as symbolical of 


war, may be inferred from the figurative 


168 


AMOS. 


Cuapr. VIL. 


O Lord Jehovah! forgive, I beseech thee! 
Who is Jacob, that he should stand ? 


For he is small. 
3 Jehovah repented of this: 


It shall not be, saith Jehovah. 


4 Thus the Lord Jehovah sho 


wed me, and, behold, the Lord 


Jehovah called to contend by fire ; and it consumed the great 
abyss, and devoured the portion, 


5 Then I said: 
O Lord Jehovah! 


desist, I beseech thee! 


Who is Jacob, that he should stand? 


For he is small. 
6 Jehovah repented of this: 


It also shall not be, saith the Lord Jehovah. 
7 Thus he showed me, and behold the Lord stood upon a per- 


character of the two visions, ver. 7, and 
chap. viii. 1. Most probably the army 
of Pul, king of Assyria, is meant. The 
Israelites had been greatly reduced by 
repeated invasions on the part of the 
Syrian kings, and were on the point of 
being attacked by the Assyrians, but 
purchased their retreat with the sum of 
one thousand talents of silver. See 2 
Kings xv. 19, 20. a>y2 mp2 9, con- 
cisely for paps »> ap 22 ™, volo ts Jacob, 
that he should stand ? meaning, how can 
he possibly sustain the threatened attack, 
reduced and weak as he is in resources, 

pap signifies to stand fast, continue, 

oideire, as well as to rise. One of De 
Rossi’s MSS., and another originally, 
read D372,and another mp2, and thus 
the LXX. Syr. Symm. and Vulg.; but 
less appropriately in such context. 

3. oma, Pick renders, gave consolation, 
which is not so suitable here as the 
signification, to repent. Such repentance 
is to be understood Seomperas, appear- 
ing, as Veil observes, ‘in effectu, citra 
mutationem in effectu.” Comp. 1 Sam. 
xv. 11; Jer. xlii. 10. Targ. » ans 
MTZ, the Lord turned away his wrath. 
n&s, the feminine pronoun, stands for the 
neuter of other languages. 

4, sap corresponds in form to 34>, 
ver. 1. sak an abbreviated form of ‘the 
Hiphil infinitive, 2) mb bine Is. iii. 


18. The verb signifies to contend judici- 
ally, to treat according to one’s deserts, 
to punish. By the fire here spoken of we 
are not to understand a great heat which 
produced a drought in the land, but war, 
of which it is an appropriate symbol. 
See Num. xx:. 28; Judges ix. 15, 20; 
Is. lxvi. 16. ‘To express the extent of 
the threatened calamity, the fire, by a 
bold figure, is represented as drying up 
the ocean (m5 DINnM), and consuming 
whatever was found on the dry land. 
This acceptation of ren, a division, por- 
tion, or allotment of, land, the antithesis 
requires; still, however, the term is chosen 
with special application to the land of 
Canaan, which was divided to the chil- 
dren of Israel as their portion. The de- 
finite form of the noun p}mn~ns, indi- 
cates asmuch. Thei siveelaxt of the land 
of Israel by Tiglath-Pileser, and the first 
captivity of that people seem to be the 
subjects of the vision. See 2 Kings xv. 
29; 1 Chron. v. 26. That in the former 
vision, the calamity had not been in- 
flicted, the use of the verb no, forgive, 
intimates. In this, it had in part, as 
the use of 51m, desist, obviously im- 
plies. 

5, 6. In these verses, as in vers. 2 and 
3, we have a beautiful instance of the in- 
fluence of prayer in averting or mitigat- 
ing the judgments of God. 











ee Oe TO 


Cuap. VII. 


8 pendicular wall; 


and in his hand was a plumb-line. 


AMOS. 169 


And 


Jehovah said to me, What seest thou, Amos? And I said, A 


plumb-line. 


And the Lord saith: 


Behold, I will set a plumb-line 
In the midst of my people Israel ; 
I will pass by them no more. 
9 The high-places of Isaac shall be desolated, 
And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste ; 
And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the 


sword. 


10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, the 


7,8. This vision, and that described 
chap. viii. 1-3, differ from the two 
preceding, in the distinct and express 
application of the symbols to the punish- 
ment of the Israelites. The Divine 
patience is exhausted. Jehovah takes 
active measures for executing his threat- 
enings, and at last inflicts the exter- 
minating judgment on a people ripe for 
destruction. The prophet, in consequence, 
intercedes no more. J28 Main, @ per- 
pendicular wall, lit. a wall of the plum- 
met, so called from the plumb-line being 
applied in order to secure its perpen- 
dicularity. 2s, which occurs only in 
these verses, properly signifies lead or 


tin. Arab. Js}, Syr. 12), plumbum. 


Aq. ydvwors, stannatura, The line and 
plummet were used not only when houses 
were building, but also when they were 
to be destroyed. See 2 Kings xxi. 13; 
Is. xxviii. 17, xxxiv. 11; Lam. ii. 8. The 
LXX. and Symm. aSduavra, which the 


_ Syr. also exhibits. In the explanation 


of the vision, it is expressly stated, that 
the plummet was to be applied to the 
people of Israel in order to mark them 
out for destruction ; and its being placed 
in the midst of them denoted, that this 
destruction was not to be confined to 
a part only of the kingdom, as it had 
been in the case of Tiglath-Pileser’s in- 
vasion, but that it should reach the very 
centre. This took place when Shal- 
maneser, the successor of that king, after 
a siege of three years, took Samaria, put 
an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, 
and carried them away captive into 

22 


Assyria, 2 Kings xvii. 3, 5, 6, 23. “ay, 
to pass, pass on or away, means, in ap- 
plication to sin, ¢o pass it by, to forgive, 
not to punish it. Prov. xix. 11; Micah 
vii. 18. See on this latter passage. 

9. A definite prediction of the destruc- 
tion which was to overtake the places of 
idolatrous worship, and the royal house 
by which that worship had been estab- 
lished and supported. These are spe- 
cially mentioned, because to them, as the 
procuring causes, the destruction was to 
be traced. For the meaning of nica, 
high places, see on Is. lxv. 7. Dap, 
the parallel term, denotes the temples, or 
structures, consecrated to the worship of 
idols. Comp. WI Ver. 13. pny, in- 
stead of pn, is not peculiar to our 
prophet ; the same orthography i is found 
Ps. ev. 9; Jer. xxxiii. 26. There is no 
reason whatever to suppose that the word 
was purposely so written, or that it was 
intended to be taken otherwise than as 
a proper name; yet the LXX. have 
Bwuol tov yéAwros; and so the Syr. 
Michaelis finds a paronomasia in it ; 
Dahl, an instance of irony; and even 
Calvin thinks that the name was used 
by Amos MUN LKOS. It is here, and ver. 
16, parallel with ts wv, and denotes the 
ten tribes. 

10, 11. Verses 10-17 contain an in- 
teresting historical episode. As there 
was doubtless a number of priests who 
conducted the idolatrous services at 
Bethel, jm'> must here be understood 
Kar’ éoxhv of the chief or high priest, 
attached to the royal temple. In the 
spirit which has characterized a false 


170 


AMOS. Cuap. VII. 


king of Israel, saying: Amos hath formed a conspiracy against 
thee, in the midst of the house of Israel: the land cannot con- 


11. tain all his words. 


For thus hath Amos said : 


Jeroboam shall die by the sword; 
And Israel shall surely be led away captive from his land. 
12 And Amaziah said to Amos: Seer! Go, flee to the land of 


13 Judah, and eat there bread, and prophesy there. 


But pro- 


14 phesy no more at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and a 


royal residence. 


And Amos answered and said to Amaziah : 


I am no prophet; neither am I the son of a prophet ; but I am 


an herdsman, and a cultivator of sycamores, 


priesthood in every age, Amaziah brings 
against the prophet the groundless charge 
of treason. ‘That $-sm> is to be rendered 
contain, and refers to number and not 
to atrocity, appears from >>, all, being 
employed before the following noun. 
Com. for this signification of the verb in 
Hiphil, 1 Kings vii. 26, 37; Ezek. xxiii. 
32. In the Syr. in which a verb signify- 
ing ¢o endure is used, >> is omitted, as 
not suiting the Oriental idiom. 

12, 13. It does not appear that the 
king took any notice of the message that 
was sent him, so that Amaziah was left 
to try what the interposition of his own 
authority would effect. He addressed 
the prophet by the title mtn, see, most 
probably with contemptuous reference to 
his visions ; though it was adopted in the 

later Hebrew, as equivalent to na2, and 
corresponds in signification to mxg4, which 
was anciently used, 1 Sam. ix. 9. Not 
imagining that Amos could be actuated 
by any higher principle than that of 
selfishness, which reigned in his own 
heart, the priest advised him to consult 
his safety by fleeing across the frontier 
into the kingdom of Judah, where he 
might obtain his livelihood by the unre- 
strained exercise of his prophetical gifts. 
The words 73—M3 45>, though pleonas- 
tic are emphatic. At all events, he could 
not be permitted any longer to prophesy 
in the city of Bethel, which was dis- 
tinguished not only as the principal 
seat of the king's religion, but also as be- 
ing one of his royal residences. Though 
the ordinary residence of the Israel- 
itish monarchs was at Samaria, yet as 


And Jehovah 


they went at certain stated seasons to 
Bethel to worship the golden calf, they 
had had a palace built there for their ac- 
commodation. 

14. Amos modestly but firmly repels 
the charge of selfishness, by declaring, 


that he was not a prophet by profession ; 


that he had not been educated with a 
view to such profession ; that he was a 
person of rustic habits: and that his 
Divine mission was altogether of an 
extraordinary character. x23 33, the son, 
i.e. pupil or disciple of a prophet. In 
all probability some of the schools of the 
prophets, of which we read in the first 
book of Samuel, were still in existence, 
in which young men were educated, who 
devoted themselves to the service of the 
theocracy in the capacity of public in- 
structors, and to these or to more pri- 
vate studies, under the guidance of some 
prophet, Amos may be supposed to 
refer. “53; strictly taken, means an 
ox-herd; but as 7/3 came, in a larger 
acceptation, to denote cattle in general, 
it might signify a keeper of any kind of 
cattle, There is, therefore no occasion, 
with some, to suppose that the word was 
originally "p42, a8 in chap. i. 1. odi2 
occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Scrip- 


tures; but the Arab. uk, signifies a 


white fig, and the Eth. nh i $ both 


the fig-tree and its fruit. As, however, 
the participial form of the word is that 
which denotes agency, it must mean one 
who is occupied with, or cultivates figs. 
The particular mode in which the an- 


——————— rr CC 





es 


(RBI ay ie tag 


oe 


se Pe 








Cuar. VIL. 


15 took me from following the 


16 Go, prophesy to my people Israel. 
of Jehovah, Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel ; 
17 Drop nothing against the house of Isaac. 


saith Jehovah: 


AMOS. 


171 


flock ; and Jehovah said to me: 
And now, hear the word 
and, 
Therefore thus 


Thy wife shall commit lewdness in the city, 

And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword ; 
Thy land, also, shall be divided by line, 

And thou shalt die in a polluted land ; 

And Israel shall surely be taken away captive from his 


land. 


cients cultivated fig-trees, the LXX. ap- 
pear to have had in their eye, when they 
rendered it by kvi(wy, a nipper or scratch- 
er ; for we are informed by Theophrastus, 
that iron nails or prongs were employed 
to make incisions or scratches in the tree, 
that by letting out some of the sap, the 
fruit might be ripened: werrew ov 
Swvarar ky uh emiuvicdh’ GAr Exovtes 
bvuxas oidnpas émxvidovow’ & FT by em- 
KVIOST, TeTapTaia wemTeTaL, iv. 2. See 
also Plin. Hist. Nat. xiii. 14; Forskal, 
Flor. Egypt. p. 182, t* an sycamores, 
a species of tree, abounding in the East, 
pretty much resembling the mulberry 
tree, the fruit of which is similar to the 
fig. It is, however, very inferior in 
quality, and is only eaten by the poorest 
class of the people. From this circum- 
stance it may be inferred that Amos 
occupied a humble station in life pre- 
vious to his being called to prophesy in 
Israel. 

15. Ss 839 is used both in a good and 
in a bad sense, and is here to be rendered 
indefinitely, to prophesy to. The pro- 
nominal suffix in “‘%2y, “my people,” is 
not without emphasis. The Israelites 
were Jehovah’s by right ; he still claimed 
his propriety in them; and, by the 
ministry of his prophet, would have re- 
covered them to his service. 

16. Instead of listening to the prohibi- 
tion of Amaziah, and retiring from his 
sphere of duty, Amos continued to dis- 


charge the duties of his office at Bethel ; 
but before proceeding to give an account 
of another vision which he had had, he 
directs a pointed prediction against the 


idolatrous priest by whom he had been_ 


interrupted. tun, to distil, to cause to 
come down. in pleasing and flowing dis- 
course; here parallel with S23, to pro- 
phesy. Comp. Ezek. — 2,7; Micah 


ii. 6,11. Syr. 2A, Arab, wiles, 
Eth. INN: stillavit, W\At 


percolavit. 

17. Between mim wes in this verse, 
and “a8 mms in ver. 16, is a marked 
antithesis. 27M is not to be understood 
of voluntary acts of infidelity on the part 
of the wife of Amaziah, but of the vio- 
lence to which she would have to submit 
on the part of the enemy. This being 
done -"»2, in the city, i.e. openly and 
publicly, was a great aggravation of the 
evil. 


*NSé add eynédaros xaupidis péor, ds 
58 ofvos 

Avrav, nal texéwy, HAaoxo & AAW 
juuyetev, Iliad. b. iii. 300, 301. 

Every country, except Canaan, was re- 

garded by the Hebrews as rxx20 71278, @ 


_ polluted land, though, at this time, their 


own land had become such. Is. xxiv. 5, 
where somis similarly used ; Jer. ii. 7. 
The land of Assyria is. that to which 
Amos points. 


~ «= - 


172 AMOS. Cuar. VIII. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


AFTER giving an account of a fourth vision, in which was represented the ripeness for des- 
truction at which the Israelites had arrived, and the certainty of such destruction, 1-3, 
the prophet resumes his denunciatory addresses to the avaricious oppressors of the peo- 
ple, 4-7; predicts the overthrow of the nation, 8-10; and concludes with threatening a 


destitution of the means of religious instruction, 11-14. 





1 ‘Txus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and, pare a basket of . 
And he said, What seest thou, Amos ? And I said, 


2 ripe fruit ! 
A basket of ripe fruit. 
Then said Jehovah to me: 


The end is come to my people Israel ; 


I will pass by them no more. 


3 And the songs of the palace shall howl, 
In that day, saith the Lord Jehovah ; 


The carcasses are many! 
Throw th€m out anywhere! 
Hush ! 


4 Hear this! ye that pant after the needy, 


1. This vision may be regarded as a 
continuation of the subject with which 
the last concluded, in the development 
of which the prophet had been interrupted 


by Amaziah. 32, Syr. [oko 4 
cage, or basket; Arab. , WAS; inserutt 


loro inter duas corii partes; XA AS, lorum 
vel filamentum lignosum palme, quo con- 
suitur : what is braided from twigs, such 
as wicker work. ‘>> is used both of 
summer, and of the fruit which is 
gathered in summer. It is to the ripe- 
ness of the fruit at this season that pro- 
minence is here designed to be given. 
The verb occurs but once in Heb. viz. 


Is. xviii. 6. Arab. fous, media @s- 


tas : bls, admodum ferbuit, estiva ha- 
buit. 

2. The paronomasia in 4p and +p is 
marked and forcible. Comp. Ezek. vii. 6: 
HRs man Flbe PEN PP 82 82 YP 


3. Instead of the pathetic elegies loudly 
and continuously poured forth at the 
princely funerals, nothing was to be 
heard but the frantic how], announcing, 
but instantly checked in announcing, the 
greatness of the disaster. Into such 
howling the joyous songs of the palace 
were to be converted. Symm. dAoAd- 
tovow af @dai. The dead bodies were 
to be cast forth indiscriminately, without 
any regard to the places where they 
might lie; and even this was not to be 
effected without exposing those who 
performed it to the attacks of the ene- 
my. Hence silence was to be enjoined. 
Some improperly render b=", ¢emple. 
For o=, comp. chap. vi. 10. 

4, The prophet resumes his usual 
style of direct comminatory address. 
Comp. chapters iy. y. and vi. For TSU, 
see on chap. ii. 7, neavs—neatind, fo 
cause to cease, bring to an end, annihilate, 
destroy. The 4 in maw; is to be taken 
TeAikas, as denoting the end or aim of 














Cuar. VII. 


AMOS. 


173 


That ye may destroy the poor of the land, 
5 Saying, When will the new moon be over, 


That we may sell corn? 
And the Sabbath, 


That we may open out grain ? 


Making the ephah small, 
And the shekel great, 


And falsifying the balances for deceit. 
6 That we may purchase the poor for money, 
And the needy for-a pair of sandals ; 
And sell the refuse of the grain. 
7" Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob : 
I will never forget any of their deeds, 


the oppressions practised by the avari- 
cious Israelites. 

5. From this and other passages it is 
obvious that the Israelites, notwithstand- 
ing their idolatrous practices, still kept 
up the observance of the times and 
seasons appointed in the law of Moses, 
say and "39 "73207, lit. to break a 
breaking, but meaning to sell grain, is 
supposed to he so named from its being 
broken to pieces when ground at the 
mill. Some, however, think the name is 
derived from its being broken up or 
separated by a measure into portions, 
with a view to sale; while others are of 
opinion that it is so called because it 
breaks or puts an end to hunger, com- 


- paring Ps. civ. 11. By a nme, opening 
_ the corn, is meant opening the sacks or 


granaries in which it was kept, and 
bringing it out for sale. Thus the LXX. 
Syr. and Targ. The pe-x, ephah, was a 
corn measure, containing three seahs, 
and’ according to Josephus, equal to the 
Attic medimnus, or somewhat above three 
English pecks. It is uncertain whether 
the word be priginally. Hebrew, or 
whether it be Egyptian, +73, from bos, 
to weigh, Arab. N43, ponderosus fuit, 


gravitatem et pondus irc is here 
used of weights in general. It was 
originally any piece of metal weighed 
as an equivalent for what was bought; 
but came afterwards to signify standard 
money, and differed in value, according 
as it was of silver or gold, and as it was 


estimated by the sacred or the royal 
standard, Exod. xxx. 13; 2 Sam. xiv. 
26. For the sake of greater emphasis, 
instead of saying, to make or to use 
deceitful balances, the verb may, to bend, 
twist, pervert, is employed, which, in 
point of meaning, is pleonastic. LXX. 
moijoa Curyoy area 

6. See chap. ii. 6. 2, from $B3, to 
fall; what has fallen off, refuse, chaff, 
etc. 

7. The ‘piiaultods conduct of the Is- 
raclites having been minutely described, 
the severe punishment which they had 
merited is now threatened. a>>> VN, 
the excellency of Jacob, has been varigualry 
interpreted. The Targ. Grotius, Dahl, 
Newcome, and Bauer, understand the 
excellence conferred upon Jacob; Justi 
and Ewald, very preposterously, the pride 
or haughtiness of the people; the Rab- 
bins and some others, the temple ; but 
the only appropriate construction of the 
phrase, in this connection, is that which 
refers it to Jehovah himself, in whom 
alone the Hebrews gloried while they 
adhered to the purity of his worship, and 
in whom they still ought to glory. Thus 

> i ree 2 oO 
the Syr- Sack 49 onal funjdo 
the Lord, the Mighty One of Jacob ; 
Munster, Vatablus, Mercer, Drusius, 
Lively, Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer. Com. 
chap. vi, 8, where W523 >3¥2 occurs 
instead of the present phrase, which, 
however, is also there used in a bad 


174 AMOS. 


Cuap. VIIL 


8 Shall not the land tremble for this, 
And every one that dwelleth therein mourn? 
Shall not all of it rise like the river ? 
Shall it not be driven, and subside, 


Like the river of Egypt? 


9 It shall come to pass in that day, 


Saith the Lord Jehovah, 


That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, 
And will darken the land in the clear day. 
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning, 
And all your songs into lamentation : 
I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, 
And baldness upon every head ; 
I will make it as the mourning for an only son, 


And the end of it a bitter day. 


sense. Mavy tr, fT forget, is the usual 
formula of swearing, implying that it 
should not take place. 5, in this con- 
nection, implies both totality, and the 
single items of which that totality is 
made up. Comp. Ps. ciii. 2. 

8. The guilt of the people was so en- 
ormous, that it was sufficient to induce 
an entire subversion of the existing 
state of things. To express this more 
strongly, the land is metaphorically re- 
presented as rising and swelling like the 
Nile, and again falling like the same 
river. Of course, the idea of the heay- 
ing and subsiding of the ground during 
an earthquake is what is intended, as 
the beginning of the verse shows. For 
the sake of energy and impression, the 
interrogative form is, as frequently, em- 
ployed. That 83, by an elision of the 
letter Yod, is a defective form of 7s72, is 
evident from the parallel passage, chap. 
ix 5. Fifteen MSS. originally two more, 
and perhaps other three, and one of the 
early editions, read -8"3 in full. For the 
origin and meaning of the word, see on 
Is. xix. 6. wy is used in Niphal, to ex- 
press the violent agitation of the sea 
when raised by the wind, Is. lvii. 20. 
It here denotes the rise of the Nile, 
which is generally above twenty feet. 
For np?2, the Keri and a great many 


: 


MSS. in the text, read mepvz, which is 
undoubtedly genuine, The root »py 
occurs in a similar connection, chap. 
ix. 5. It signifies to sink down, or sub- 
side, 

9. Some think the prophet here pre- 
dicts the total eclipse of the sun, which 
took place at one of the great festivals 
in the year that Jeroboam died, (see 
Usher’s Annals, a. M. 3213); but what- 
ever there may be in the language bor- 
rowed from such an event, consistency 
of interpretation requires it to be taken 
metaphorically, as descriptive of a change 
from circumstances of prosperity to those 
of adversity. Comp. Jer. xv. 9; Ezek. 
xxxii. 7-10. 

10. The Hebrew festivals were occa- 
sions of great joy, and were no doubt on 
this very account kept up among the ten 
tribes after they had lost their religious 
importance. The calamitous result of 
the Assyrian invasion under Shalma- 
neser is here most graphically de- 
picted. Comp. Is. xv. 2; Jer. xlviii. 37 ; 
Ezek. vii. 18. The death of an only 
son was regarded by the Hebrews as the 
most mournful of events. Comp. Jer. 
vi. 26; Zech. xii. 10. The pronominal 
soleus in Ay and mn yn is yrs 
understood. > in “7 D472, is the Caph 
veritatis. 





a oe 





= VE 


“_, ae 


AP ae ye as, OS 
ee ee ge a ae 


a 


ae ee 


A 


— 


ae ae 











aN aa a 


Cuap. VIII. 


AMOS. 


175 


11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, 
When I will send a famine into the land ; 
Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, 
But of hearing the words of Jehovah. 
12 And men shall wander from sea to sea, — 
And shall run up and down, from the North even to the East, 


Seeking the word of Jehovah, 


But they shall not find it. 


13 In that day the fair virgins shall faint, 
And the young men also, for thirst ; 

14 That swear by the sin of Samaria, 
And say, By the life of thy God, O Dan! 


«Nunc et amara dies, et noctis amarior 
umbra est ; 

Omnia jam tristi tempora felle madens.” 

Tibullus, Eleg. lib. ii. Eleg. iv. 11. 


11, 12. The Israelites now despised 
the messages of the prophets, and by a 
just retribution, in addition to all their 
other calamities, they should experience 
a total withdrawal of all prophetic com- 
munications. Comp. Ezek. vii. 26 ; 
Micah iii. 7. In whatever direction they 
might proceed, and whatever efforts they 
might make to obtain information rela- 
tive to the issue of their trouble, they 
should meet with nothing | but disappoint- 
ment. fnyT%, sun-rise, is used, where 
geographically we should have expected 
7770" , or 233, the south ; but the term may 
have been chosen in ‘order to intimate 
the complete alienation of Israel from 
Judah, in consequence of which no one 
would think of repairing to Jerusalem 
for oracular information. That any trans- 
position of the words has taken place, 
I cannot, with Houbigant and Newcome, 
suppose. It is, however, just as probable 
that the cardinal points were not in- 
tended to be strictly marked, but that 
the object was to indicate generally the 
hopelessness of the attempts mentioned. 
The Athnach is improperly — under 
mata, instead of under yoUis ", as the 
Vau prefixed to jinx and the form of 
the verb show. 

13. ss in this verse, is to be under- 
stood of the natural thirst to be expe- 
rienced by the inhabitants of Samaria 


during the siege predicted in the pre- 
ceding verses; 52552nn, properly means, 
they shall feel themselves involved in dark- 
ness, which is physically true of those 
who are seized with syncope. The root 


5o2, Arab. ode, signifies to cover, 
envelop ; here, with darkness, under- 
stood. After p-anan subaud. 125357. 

14, yin mis, the sin or crime of 
Samaria ; i. e. the golden calf and other 
objects of unlawful worship which were 
the occasion of sin and guilt to the Is- 
raelites. Hitzig thinks that Astarte is 
specifically meant ; but the term was 
doubtless intended to comprehend the 
calf at Bethel, the religious veneration 
of which led to the grosser forms of 
idolatry. At the same time, m7%x, As- 
tarte, is spoken of, 2 Kings xiii. 6, in 
distinction from the worship specially 
instituted by Jeroboam. See on Is. xvii. 
8. The god of Dan was the other gol- 
den calf, erected by Jeroboam in Dan, 
1 Kings xii. 26-28. By sav—-x2 577, 
Kimchi, Michaelis, and Bauer, under-. 
stand literally the way or pilgrimage to 
Beersheba ; but the phrase being parallel 
with the two former instances, in which 
objects of false worship are meant, it 
must here be taken in the same sense. 
Hence the LXX. render (7 Seds cov. 
Strictly speaking, it denotes the way or 
mode of worship, or the worship itself, 
that was performed at Beersheba. Com. 
Ps, exxxix. 24; Acts ix. 2, xix. 9, 23. 
See on chap. v. 5. °7 is a formula of 





176 


AMOS. 


And, By the life of the way of Beersheba! 
They shall fall, and rise no more, 


swearing: By the life of ——, or, As culiarly absurd and sinful when applied 
sure as such an one lives, and was pe- to inanimate objects. 





CHAPTER IX. 


Tuts chapter commences with an account of the fifth and last vision of the prophet, in which 


the final ruin of the kingdom of Israel is represented. This ruin was to be complete and | 


irreparable; and no quarter to which the inhabitants might flee for refuge, would afford 
them any shelter from the wrath of the Omnipresent and Almighty Jehovah, 1-6. Asa 
sinful nation, it was to be treated as if it had never stood in any covenant relation to him; 
yet, in their individual capacity, as the descendants of Abraham, how much soever they 
might be scattered and afflicted among the heathen, they should still be préserved, 7-10. 
The concluding part of the chapter contains a distinct prophecy of the restoration of the 
Jewish church after the Babylonish captivity, 11; the incorporation of the heathen which 
was to be consequent upon that restoration, 12; and the final establishment of the Jews 





in their own land in the latter day, 13-165. 





1 Isaw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: 
Smite the capital, that the thresholds may shake ; 
And break them in pieces, on the heads of them all ; 
Their posterity I will slay with the sword ; | 
None of their fugitives shall make his escape, | 
Nor shall any that slip away be delivered. 


1. By the Targ., Calvin, Drusius, Gro- 
tius, Justi, Rosenmiiller, and Hengs- 
tenberg, the scene of this vision is laid 
at the temple of Jerusalem; by Cyril, 
Munster, Tarnovius, Schmidius, Lowth, 
Michaelis, Dahl, Bauer, Hitzig, and 
Ewald, at the idolatrous temple at Be- 
thel, and, in my opinion, rightly. Calvin 
does not show his usual tact in objecting 
to this interpretation, on the ground that 
it represents Jehovah as indirectly ap- 
proving of superstition ; for, though the 
true God was seen beside the idolatrous 
altar, it was not for the purpose of re- 
ceiving homage, but of commanding 
that the whole of the erection and wor- 


ship at Bethel should be destroyed. 
No argument in favor of Jerusalem 
can be built on the use of the article in 
martian ‘the altar,” but the contrary. 
The idolatrous object to which sacrifices 
were offered at Bethel, having been 
mentioned in the preceding verse, nothing 
is more natural than a reference here to 
the altar on which they were presented. 
“{PEs, an ornamented head or capital of 
a column, in the shape of a sphere, or 
bowl surrounded by flowers. It is 
usually derived from “£5, ¢o cover, and 
“na, to crown. LXX. iracripiov, mis- 
taking the word for m5. When used 
of the ornamental part of the golden can- 








Crap. IX. 


AMOS. 


177 


2 Though they break through into Sheol, 
Thence shall my hand take them ; 
Though they climb up to heaven, 


Thence will I bring them down. 


3 Though they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel, 
There I will search them out and take them; 
Though they conceal themselves from mine eyes in the bottom 


of the sea, 


There I will command the serpent, and he shall bite them. 
4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies, 

There I will command the sword, and it shall kill them: 

I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, 


And not for good. 


5 For it is the Lord Jehovah of hosts, 
That toucheth the earth and it melteth; 


dlestick, they render it epaipwrhp. For 
ped, see on Is, vi. 4; the similarity, in 
some respects, between which passage 
and the present, appears to have sug- 
gested the idea that the temple at Jeru- 
salem is here meant. The temple was 
to be smitten both above and below, to 
indicate its entire destruction. pz, 
break them, i. e. the capitals, etc., upon 
the head of all the worshippers. It 
does not appear that yx and mmx are 
here used antithetically. The latter de- 
notes the children of those who perished 
in the attack upon the idolatrous temple. 
‘When threatened by the Assyrians, they 
would flock in crowds to Bethel, to im- 
plore protection from the golden calf, 
and, while thus assembled, they should 
perish, along with the vain object of their 
trust ; they should, in fact, be buried in 
the ruins. 

2-4, These verses exhibit a beautiful 
series of supposed cases of attempt at 
escape from the judgments of God, and 
the utter futility of every attempt of the 
kind. Six and px .22n, are, as usual, 
employed as extreme points of opposition. 
Comp. Job xi. 8; Ps, exxxix. 8; Is. xiv. 
13, 14; Matt. xi. 23. ban ts. Not 
only was Mount Carmel celebrated on 
account of its general fertility, but also 





on account of the dense forests and large. 


caverns with which it abounded. These, 
together with its height, which is about 
23 


twelve hundred feet, afforded the fittest 
possible places of concealment. Richter, 
in his Pilgrimage, p. 65, says: ** Mount 
Carmel is entirely covered with green ; 
on its swmmits are pines and oaks, and 
further down, olive and laurel trees, 
etc. These forests would furnish safe 
hiding places, equally with the caves, 
which are chiefly on the west side facing 
the sea.” 2m ¥pnp, the bottom of the 
Mediterranean Sea, forms a striking con- » 
trast to the summit of Carmel, which 
beetles above it. spp, Arab. 


i 
terra equabilis ; when spoken of a house, 
the foundation or floor ; here the bottom 
or basis, on which the sea rests. For 
DM3, sea-serpent, see on Is. xxvii. 1. 


¢s Immensis orbibus angues 
Incumbant pelago, pariterque ad littora 
tendunt.” 





JEneid, ii. 204. 


The % in Drv, in verses 3 and 4, loses 
its proper prepositive signification, as in 
yS"%, Ma, Mmm, etc. and merely 
denotes position or place. 

5, 6. A sublime description of the al- 
mighty and uncontrollable power of 
Jehovah. For the reference to the 
Nile, see on chap. viii. 8. Instead of 
anita, the Keri and not a few MSS. 
read 1° ibz% in full Comp. »n ir», 
Ps. civ. 3, 13. 


178 


And all that dwell in it mourn; : 


AMOS. 


Cuapr. IX, 


It riseth, all of it, like the river, 
And subsideth like the river of Egypt. 

6 He that buildeth his upper chambers in the heavens, 
And foundeth his vaults upon the earth ; , 
That calleth to the waters of the sea, 

And poureth them out on the surface of the earth ; 


Jehovah is his name. 


7 — Are ye not as the Cushites to me, 
O sons of Israel ? saith Jehovah. 
Did I not bring Israel from the land of Egypt ? 


The Philistines from Caphtor ? 


And the Syrians from Kir ? 


8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful king- 


dom, 


ASepos oikov bréprarov vaserdeis. 
Oppian. Halieut. i. 490. 
Gcod oiknrhpiov Tod Kéopov Td kvw. 

Aristot. 
mas, a body or mass, the parts of which 
are firmly compacted; Arab. ole}, 

fornix firme compaginis et structure ; 
an arch or vault ; obviously used of the 
271, or hemispheric expanse or vault of 
heaven; which, from its appearing to 
the eye to rest upon the earth, is here 
said to be founded upon it. To render it, 
with the Targ., congregation, and apply 
it to the Church, as a body of believers, 
firmly united together, is altogether un- 
suitable to the connection. The render- 
ing of the LXX., Syr., and Arab. would 
seem to indicate that ninax mim orig- 
inally stood in the text, at the end of 
ver. 8; but only one of De Rossi’s MSS, 

has this reading at first hand. 

7. By appealing to the fact, that, in 
his providence, he had removed different 
nations from their original abodes, and 
settled them elsewhere, Jehovah repels 
the idea, which the Israelites were so 
prone to entertain, that, because he had 
brought them out of Egypt, and given 
them the land of Canaan, they were pe- 
culiarly the objects of his regard, and 
could never be subdued or destroyed. 
He now regarded, and would treat them 
as the Cushites, who had been trans- 


planted from their primary location 
in Arabia, into the midst of the bar- 
barous nations of Africa. p™*wp Re Cush- 
ites, are here the inhabitants “of the 
African Cush, or Ethiopia. See on Is, 


xviii. 2. Arab. yeas} os Abys- 


sinians. 

Aisiomas, Tol dix84 dedalara, toxaro 
avdpar, 

Of péy dvcouévov sdeplovos, of 8 du- 


OvTOS+ 
; Odyss. i. 23, 24. 
For prmebe, see on Is. xiv. 28. Gese- 
nius hesitates between Crete and Cap- 
padocia, as designated by the Hebrew 
Caphtor, but inclines to the former. 
Thesaurus, p. 709. LXX. Kamradoxta. 
bux, Aram, or Syria, put for the Syrians, 
i.e, the inhabitants of the countries 
about Damascus. They are here repre- 
sented as having migrated from ->p, Kir, 
the country lying on the river Kur, or 
Cyrus. See on Is. xxii. 6. 

8, 9. 3 Bray, the eyes of a person are 
said to be in any one, when he keeps 
him steadily in view, in order either to 
do him good, or to punish him. In 
the present instance, the phrase conveys 
the idea of hostility. Though the king- 
dom of the ten tribes was to be utterly 
and forever destroyed, yet, as descend- 
ants of their patriarchal ancestors, they 
should not become extinct. In the midst 





eS 


Cuar. IX. 


AMOS. 


179 


And I will destroy it from the face of the earth ; 
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, 


Saith Jehovah, 
9 For, behold, I will command, 


And will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, 


As one sifteth corn in a sieve, 


And not a grain falleth to the ground. 

10 But all the : sinners of my people shall die by the sword, 
That say, ~The evil shall not reach nor overtake us. 

11 In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is falling, 
And will close up its breaches ; 


of the wrath which their sinfulness should 
bring upon them, God would remember 
mercy. "D dbx is strongly adversative, 
M22, @ sieve, ‘which is used to separate 
the chaff and other refuse from the pure 
grain, is most. probably derived from 
"22, to be many, from the number of 
small holes in it. LXX. Aumpyds. Aq. and 
Symm. Kécnwov. “nz is used as a di- 
minutive of “1x, the smallest stone, 2 
Sam. xvii. 13 ; here it signifies the small- 
est grain or particle of corn. While the 
figurative language here employed ex- 
presses the violence of the sifting process 
to which the Israelites should be sub- 
jected in order that their idolatry and 
other sins might be removed from them ; 
it likewise sets forth the great care that 
would be exercised for their preserva- 
tion. The universal character of their 
dispersion is likewise strongly marked. 

10. Those are here specially intended, 
who scoffingly denied the possibility of 
the Assyrian conquest, namely, the 
dissipated magnates of Samaria. Such 
should perish in the war. “72 apn 
is unusual. Perhaps the meaning is, 
Shall not come forward, or advance 
in our rear, so as to cut off our re- 
treat. 

11. The Israelites now disappear from 
the scene, in order to give place to a 
brief but prominent exhibition of the 
restoration of the Jews from their de- 
pressed condition, during the anticipated 
captivity in Babylon, and the great 
design of that restoration — the intro- 
duction of the Messianic dispensation, 


during which the blessings of the cov- 
enant of mercy was to be extended to the 
Gentile world. With this reference in 
view, the apostle James expressly quotes 
the prophecy, Acts xv. 15-17. The quo- 
tation is made from the version of the 
LXX.; but as regards. verbality, differs 
fully as much from it, as the latter does 
from the Hebrew text ; his object being 
to give the general sense of the passage, 
and not the identical phraseology. It 
must further be observed that, though he 
quotes the entire passage, consisting of 
the 11th and 12th verses, his obvious 
design was to give prominence to what 
is contained in the latter, viz. the con- 
version of the Gentiles, the very point 
required by his argument; so that all 
attempts to apply what is said respect- 
ing the booth of David to the Christian 
church, are unwarranted and futile. 
711, David, is used by the prophet, not 
in its figurative, but .in its proper mean- 
ing, as denoting the Hebrew monarch of 
that name. By sanz 04>, that day, for 
which James has, quite indefinitely, uerd 
TavTa, We are to understand the period of 
the dispersion of the Israelites among the 
nations, subsequent to the fall of their 
kingdom. Though that kingdom would 
never be restored, yet the Jewish polity 
would be re-established at Jerusalem. 
This polity is here called + rans, the 
booth, or hut of David, to denote the 
reduced state of his family, and the 
affairs of the people. Comp. Is. xi. 1, 


.and my note there. When the prosperity 


of that family is spoken of, the more 


180 


And I will raise up its ruins, 


AMOS. 


Crap. 


And build it as in the days of old. 
12 That the remnant of Edom may be possessed, 
_ And all the nations upon which my name shall be called, 


Saith Jehovah that doeth this. 


dignified phrase, 1745 ra, the house of 
David, is employed. See 2 Sam, iii. 1; 

1 Kings xi. 38 ; Is. vii. 2,13. 415 brik, 
the tent, or takorwbians of David) Is. xwi. 5, 
would seem to express an intermediate 
state of things. That 1°12, David, is here 
to be understood of the Messiah, I cannot 
find. md, tugurium, a hut, or booth, so 
called from its being constructed by 
interweaving the boughs and branches 
of trees with each other, and its thus 
forming a rude shelter from the storm. 
It was in such booths the Hebrews were to 
dwell during the seven days of nizon 9h, 

the feast of booths, commonly ‘called 
‘the feast of tabernacles.” See Levit. 

xxiii. 40-43. Root 52, fo weave, in- 
terweave, protect, Still more definitely 
to mark the depressed condition of the 
Jewish kingdom, is described as nt5>, 
falling. The present participle is here, 
as frequently, used to denote an action 
which was happening at the time of 
narration, and which would be continued, 
About the time of Amos the Jewish af- 
fairs had begun to decline; and, though 
they occasionally and partially revived, 

yet, taken as a whole, they continued to 
deteriorate till the Babylonish invasion, 
when they were reduced to the deplorably 
fallen state in which they continued till 
the return from the captivity, when the 
restoration here predicted took place. 
From the phraseology employed by the 
prophet, the Rabbins derived one of the 
names which they give to the Messiah : 
be» “2 the son of the fallen. Thus in the 
Talmud, Sanhed. fol. 96, 2: «*R. Nach- 
man said to R. Isaac: Hast thou heard 
when Bar-naphli comes? To whom he 
said, Who is Bar-naphii. He replied, 
The Messiah: you may call the Messiah 
Bar-naphii ; for is it not written, In that 
day I will raise up, etc.?”’ quoting the 
present verse of Amos. 
passages to the same effect, see Schoet- 


For other. 


genii Hore Hebraice et Talmud. The 
feminine suffix in ;7>="8 is to be re- 
ferred to the different parts or cities of 
the kingdom, understood. The mas- . 
culine in 7757, has +47 for its antece- 
dent, and the feminine in Sp refers 
to mD0. 

12. The grand end of the restoration 
from the captivity in Babylon is now 
stated, viz. the introduction of the 
universal economy of the gospel. The 
church of God had formerly consisted of 
persons belonging to a particular nation : 
henceforth it was to comprehend those 
of all nations, even such as had been 
most hostile to its interests, whom God 
would call to be his people. %>, to take 
possession of, inherit, is here used figura- 
tively of the influence for good which the 
church should exert over the Gentiles, 
bringing them within her pale, and using 
them for her holy and benevolent pur- 
poses. In the words, wise cris FIL 
«thy seed shall possess,” or ‘ inherit the 
nations,”’ Is. liv. 3, we have a strictly 
parallel prophecy, couched in the same 
language. Comp. also Is. xlix. 8, and 
Rom. iv. 13, where, in reference to the 
blessing of the Gentiles with faithful 
Abraham, that patriarch is called “ the 
heir of the world.” Among the first of 
the foreign. nations that were to experi- 
ence his beneficent influence, the Idu- 
means are expressly mentioned. Owing 
to the enmity which had existed. between 
them and the Jews, they had mutually 
harassed ‘and wasted each other, in con- 
sequence of which, and of invasions and 
wars on the part of other powers, nothing 
but mane, a remnant, of the former was 
left. Of this remnant, a portion was pro- 
selytized to the Jewish faith in the time 
of John Hyrcanus, and the remainder 
amalgamated with the tribes of Arabia, 
which embraced the Christian faith. It 
is to these last that specific reference 





, OO + 





Le ee OD 


Cuap. IX. 


AMOS. 181 


13 Behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah, 
That the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, 
And the treader of grapes him that soweth the seed ; 
And the mountains shall drop with new wine, 


And all the hills shall melt. 


is here made. 34% is to be taken 
impersonally, and rendered passively ; 
and the power of its future must be 
carried forward to x4p2. The calling of 
aname upon any person or thing, de- 
notes the assertion of the claims of the 
individual whose name is mentioned 
upon the person or thing specified. 
pan —b> is the accusative, Dy being 
understood as repeated. moa 4270 
Eins m4yyv—ns the LXX. have ren- 


dered ores ex Cnrhowow of KardAorat 
Tav avSpérwyv, or, as some MSS. read, 
éx(nthowot we, aS if their Hebrew al 
had been nts noqN8 “ns T7772 yb, 

that the residue of men may "seek me. 
Newcome supposes that the reading 
"m& is a contraction for 4 m? my; but 
though tov Kupiov, which we find in 
the quotation, Acts xv. 17, might seem 
to favor this supposition, there is no 
evidence to prove that the contraction 
™ mx, sO common in Rabbinical writ- 
ings, is of such antiquity. Tdv Kipioy 
I consider to be merely an interpreta- 
tion of we. No Hebrew MSS. afford 
any countenance to the Greek transla- 
tion, nor do any of the versions, except 
the Arabic, which, as usual, follows the 
LXX. For this reason, and regarding 
the latitude used by the writers of the 
New Testament when quoting from the 
Old, I cannot perceive how the passage 
can justly be charged with corruption. 
To which add, that the words as they 
stand in the Hebrew text, admirably 
suit the connection, as they equally do 
the argument of the apostle; though 
quoting, according to custom, from the 


Greek version, he adopted in the main. 


the construction which it exhibits as 
sufficiently expressive of the fact which 
he had in view. 

13. Comp. Levit. xxvi. 5. The lan- 
guage imports the greatest abundance}; 


and this verse, with the two following, 
refer to a period subsequent to that of 
the calling of the Gentiles. This the in- 
troductory phrase b*s3 D759 nan, Behold, 
the days are coming, distinguished as it 
is from sin £493, In that day, ver. 11, 
the position of the prophecy, and other 
features which characterize it, sufficiently 
show. ‘The verses are parallel with Is. 


_Ixi, 4, lxil. 8, 9, lxv. 21-23 ; and are to 


be interpreted of the future restoration 
of the Jews to their own land, and their 
abundant prosperity in the latter day. 
For sain “yi, to draw out the seed, 
comp. 3137 3%, Ps. cxxvi. 6. The 
idea seems to be that of conveying the 
seed with the hand from the sack or ves- 
sel in which it was carried, yet not to the 
exclusion of the act of sowing. Comp. 


the Eth. RI: Jaculatus est sagit- 


tas. For vox, fresh or sweet wine, 
see on Joel i, 5. The metaphorical 
language here employed is at once, in 
the highest degree, bold and pleasing. 
The Hebrews were accustomed to con- 
struct terraces on the sides of the 
mountains and other elevations, on which 
they planted vines. Of this fact the 
prophet avails himself, and represents 
the immense abundance of the produce to 
be such, that the eminences themselves 
would appear to be converted into the 
juice of the grape. 

“ Subitis messor gaudebit aristis : 
Rorabunt querceta favis, stagnantia pas- 

sim 
Vina fluent, oleique lacus.” 


Claudian, in Rufin. lib. i. 382. 


How striking the contrast between the 
scene here depicted, and that which 
the face of Palestine has presented 
during the long period of the disper- 





sion! 


182 


AMOS. 


Cuap. IX. 


14 I will reverse the captivity of my people Israel, 
And they shall build the desolate cities, and inhabit them ; 
And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them; 
They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them, 

15 For I will plant them in their own land, 
And they shall no more be plucked up from their land 


Which I have given them, 
Saith Jehovah thy God. 


14, 15. It is impossible to conceive 
of prophecy more distinctly or positively 
asserting the future and final restoration 
of the Jews to Canaan than that con- 
tained in these verses. Once and again 
they have been removed from that fa- 
vored land, on account of their wicked- 
ness ; but still it is theirs by Divine dona- 
tion to their great progenitor, And when 


they return to the faith of Abraham, be- 
holding in retrospection the day of the 
Messiah, which he saw and was glad, but 
deeply bewailing their guilt in having 
crucified him, and persevered for so many 
centuries in the rejection of his gospel, 
they shall regain possession of it, and re- 
main its happy occupants till the end of 
time. 





OBADIAH. 





PREFACE. 


THE prophecy of Obadiah, consisting only of twenty-one verses, is the 
shortest book of the Old Testament. Jerome calls him, parvus propheta, 
versuum supputatione, non sensum. Of his origin, life, and circumstances, 
we know nothing; but, as usual, various conjectures have been broached 
by the Rabbins and Fathers :— some identifying him with the pious Oba- 
diah who lived at the court of Ahab; some, with the overseer of the work- 
men, mentioned 2 Chron. xxxiv. 12; and some, with others of the same 
name; while there is no lack of legendary notices respecting the place of 
his birth, sepulchre, ete. See Carpzovii Introd. tom. iii. pp. 332, 333. 

That he flourished after the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, may 
be inferred from his obvious reference to that event, verses 11-14; for it 
is more natural to regard these verses as descriptive of the past, than as pro- 
phetical anticipations of the future. He must, therefore, have lived after, 
or been contemporary with Jeremiah, and not with Hosea, Joel, and Amos, 
as Grotius, Huet, and Lightfoot, maintain. Sufficient proof of his having 
lived in or after the time of that prophet, has been supposed to be found in 
the almost verbal agreement between verses 1-8, and certain verses inserted 
in the parallel prophecy, Jeremiah xlix.; it being assumed that he must 
have borrowed from him. This opinion, however, though held by Luther, 
Bertholdt, Von Coelln, Credner, Hitzig, and Von Knobel, is less probable 
than the contrary hypothesis, which has been advocated by Tarnovius, 
Schmidius, Du Veil, Drusius, Newcome, Eichhorn, Jahn, Schnurrer, Rosen- 
miiller, Holzapfel, Hendework, Hiavernick, and Maurer. Indeed, a com- 
parison of the structure of the parallel prophecies goes satisfactorily to show 
the priority of our prophet, as has been ably done by Schnurrer, in his 
Disputatio philologica in Obadiam, Tubing. 1787, 4to. Add to which, that 
Jeremiah appears to have been in the habit of partially quoting from preced- 
ing prophets. Comp. Is. xv. xvi. with Jerem. xlviii. This view is confirmed 
by the opinion of Ewald, that both these writers copied from some earlier 
prophet, since he admits that Obadiah has preserved, in a less altered con- 
dition, the more energetic and unusual manner of the original than Jeremiah. 
In brief, the portion in question is so entirely in keeping with the remainder 
of the book, that they must be considered as having been originally delivered 
by the same individual ; whereas Jeremiah presents it in the form of disjecta 
membra poete. 

In all probability the ane et was delivered between the year B. c. 588, 
when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans, and the termination of the 


184 PREFACE TO OBADIAH. 


siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. During this interval, that monarch sub- 
dued the Idumeans, and other neighboring nations. 

Of the composition of Obadiah, little, as Bishop Lowth observes, can be 
said, owing to its extreme brevity. Its principal features are animation, 
regularity, and perspicuity. 

The subjects of the prophecy are the judgments to be inflicted upon the 
Idumeans on account of their wanton and cruel conduct towards the Jews at 
the time of the Chaldean invasion; and the restoration of the latter from 
captivity. The book may, therefore, be fitly divided into two parts: the 
first comprising verses 1-16, which contain a reprehension of the pride, self- 
confidence, and unfeeling cruelty of the former people, and definite predic- 
tions of their destruction ; the latter, verses 17-21, in which it-is promised 
that the Jews should not only be restored to their own land, but possess the 
territories of the surrounding nations, especially Idumea. 

The reason why the book occupies its present unchronological position in 
the Hebrew Bible, is supposed to be the connection between the subject of 
which it treats, and the mention made of “ the residue of Edom,” at the con- 
clusion of the preceding book of Amos. 


tage 
Tae 


aie a ar ‘ 4. - mn 
Pe RO 2» | He PIC HERS Rpt 


a a Re Pee 


—— © 


ee 


OBADIAH. 


185 


OBADIAH. 


THE prophecy commences by announcing the message sent in the providence of God to the 
Chaldeans, to come and attack the Idumeans, ver 1; and describes the humiliation of 
their pride, 2,3; the impossibility of their escape by means of their boasted fastnesses, 4; 


and the completeness of their devastation, 5. 


It then proceeds with a sarcastic plaint over 


their deserted and fallen condition, 6-9; specifies its cause —their unnatural cruelty to- 
wards the Jews, 10-14; and denounces a righteous retribution, 15,16. The remaining 
portion fortells the restoration of the Jews, their peaceful settlement in their own land, and 
the establishment of the kingdom of Messiah, 17-21. 





‘1. Tue Vision of Obadiah. 


Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom : 
We have heard a report from Jehovah, 
And a messenger is sent among the nations : 
“Up! let us rise against her to battle ! ” 
2 Behold, I have made thee small among the nations ; 


1. Eichhorn, Rosenmiiller, Jacger, 
and Hendewerk, have raised unneces- 
sary doubt respecting the genuineness 
of the title and introduction contained 
in this verse, which have been fully 
obviated by Schnurrer, Maurer, and Hit- 
zig. For 411m, see on Is.i,1. 9723, 
Obadiah, «the servant of Jehovah,” 
equivalent to beta, Abdeel, Jer. xxxvi. 
26; Arab. x JS} as, Abd-allah ; Ger. 
Gottschalck. For DATS, Edom, see on 
Is. xxxiv. 5. The words way myn 
mim? ms, we have heard a report from 
Jehovah, are not to be regarded as de- 
signed to describe the reception of the 
Divine message by the prophet, but ex- 
press the communication made to the 
nations by the ambassador sent to sum- 
mon them to the attack upon Idumea, as 
the following clause shows. The nymy, 
report, or communication itself, is con- 
tained in the last line of the verse. The 
plural form 22724, “we have heard,” 
for which Jeremiah has “nyu, “ZT have 
heard,” is so qualified by the passive 
verb h>3 in the second member of the 
parallelism, that it is equivalent to the 
passive form mev2» hath been se ss 


There is, therefore, no necessity to in- 
quire whether Obadiah meant himself 
and other prophets, or whether he iden- 
tified himself with his countrymen, 
All that is intended is the circulation of 
the hostile message in regard to Idumea; 
and the tracing of the movement to the 
overruling providence of God, by which 
Nebuchadnezzar and his allies were led 
to turn their arms against that country. 
See Calvin, in loc. “"x, a messenger, or 


ambassador; Arab. pbe; 4 


FSectus est. LXX. wepioxhv, but in Jer. 
ayyéAous ; Symm. here dyyeAlay. Com. 
Is. xviii. 2, and my note there. NOP, 
arise! up! like :5$, come! go! etc., is 
frequently used as a term of excitement. 
With it the address of the herald com- 
mences; who, identifying himself with 
the nations which he summons, pro- 
ceeds to employ the plural of the same 
verb in its strictly hostile sense, followed 
by the preposition ty. tits, though 
properly masculine, is here viewed as 
VIS, @ country ; hence the feminine 
suffix in my. 

2. Here the masculine gender is 
adopted, which is continued throughoct 


, 2vit, pro- 


186 


Thou art exceedingly despised. 


OBADIAH, 


3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, 
Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, 


Whose habitation is high ! 
That saith in his heart, 


Who shall bring me down to the ground ? 
4 Though thou shouldest soar like the eagle, 
And shouldest set thy nest among the stars, 


Thence I will bring thee down, 


the prophecy — 3, people, being under- 
stood. The past time of the verbs ex- 
presses the certainty of the events; and 
itp , small, and “3, despised, are not 
designed to mark the comparatively 
limited and despicable character of 
Idumea, geographically considered, as 
Newcome interprets, but describe the 
miserable condition to which it was to 
be reduced by its enemies. 

3. The Idumeans are taunted with the 
proud confidence which they placed in 
their lofty and precipitous mountain 
fastnesses, and the insolence with which 
they scouted every attempt to subdue 
them. These positions, strong by nature, 
and many of them rendered still more 
so by art, they deemed absolutely im- 
pregnable. Such inaccessible places are 
appropriately called sbe13n, cliffs of 


the rock, Syr.  weepens the Arab. 


la., confugit ; and hence the idea of 


refuge, which is secondary, and less 
proper to be adopted here. LXX. & 


e > 
Syr. 2 aos 

y 
Tonoes in fortissima rupe. Some in- 


terpreters are of opinion that by yb», 
Sela, we are to understand the city of 
that name, otherwise called Petra, situ- 
ated in Wady Masa, and celebrated as 
the capital of Idumea. See on Is, xvi. 
1. The o7147 , cliffs, would, on this in- 
terpretation, be the high and inaccessible 
rocks which beetled over that metropolis. 
I prefer taking the word in its literal 
acceptation, and view it as a collective, 
equivalent to the plural of the LXX, 
and other ancient versions, and thus 


Tais émais Tay TeTpar. 


saith Jehovah. 


describing the rocky character of the 
country generally, as well as that about 
Petra in particular. Instead of Fy"en, 
hath deceived thee, four of De Rossi’s 
MSS. and originally two more, read 
en; but though this reading is sup- 
ported by the LXX., Arab., Nile: -» and 
Hexaplar Syr. it is inferior to that of the 
Textus Receptus, which has the suffrages 
of the Syr. and the Targ., especially as 
there are no other instances in which 
nwr is used in the sense of raising, or 
elevating. The» in »7>% is simply a po- 
etic paragogic, of which several examples 
occur in the Benoni participle. See. Gen. 
xlix. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 16; Is. xxii. 16; 
Micah vii. 14. In ima there is a transi- 
tion from the second person to the third, 
for the sake of more graphically pointing 
out the proud position of Edom. Comp. 
Is. xxii. 16. 

4. By a bold but beautiful hyperbole, 
the Idumeans are told, that, to what 
height soever they might remove, and 
how entirely they might imagine them- 
selves to be beyond the reach of their 
enemies, Jehovah would dislodge them, 
and deliver them into their power. For 
the soaring of the eagle, and his building 
his nest on the inaccessible crags of the 
rock, comp. Job xxxix. 27, 28: 

gz MRaL PETS eN 
31ap Ke “31 
72522 4292 “yh 
mas ‘gheqg-ty 
« Ts it at thy command the eagle soars, 
And erects his nest on high ? 
The rock he inhabits, and makes his 
\ abode 
On the point of the rock, and the fast- 
\. ness,” 


* 
~ 


ee 





OBADIAH. 


5 If thieves had come to thee, 


187 


Or robbers by night (how art thou destroyed !) 
W ould they not have stolen what was sufficient for them ? 


If vintagers had come to thee, 


Would they not have left some gleanings ? 


6 How is Esau explored! 


nw Ewald and Hitzig take to be a passive 
participle; but that it is the infinitive 
construct, is rendered certain by its 
haying the preposition »a before it, Job 
xx. 4. In the present instance, and in 
Num. xxv. 21, in which, as here, it is 
followed by 3377, it stands elliptically for 
Bren ow; which sufficiently accounts for 
‘the rendering of the LXX., Syr., Targ., 
and Vulg., which exhibit the second 
person singular of the verb. The term 
t.a>Di> is to be understood literally of 
the stars, as the highest objects which 
present themselves to the eye, and not 
of the tops of the highest rocks, or even 
heaven itself, as some have maintained, 
FT isa direct reply to the vaunting 
question, *27,797> ™, ver. 8. Theodoret 
well expresses the sense thus: *Eze:d) 
Tolvuv, nar Tabrats Sappav adraovedy 
kal péya ppoveis Gs &Xeipwros, eddrwrdv 
ge KaTaoThow Kai edxelpwt ov Tois éx- 
Spots, Kal Tov moeulov ov Suaperen 
Tas xeipas, ovde ef Binny deTOD meTEwpos 
dpdelns, K. T+ A, 

5. The Idumeans are here taught, that 
their devastation would be complete. 
This prophetic intelligence is com- 
municated in the form of interrogative 
illustrations, derived from customs with 
which they were familiar. ‘The manner 
in which they should be treated would 
be very different from that adopted by 
private thieves, or by a party of maraud- 
ing nomades, who usually seize as much 
as they can, and especially what they 
have set their minds on, in the hurry of 
the moment, leaving the rest of the 
property to its possessors. They should 
even fare worse than the vines, on which 
the vintages, though they cut down the 
bunches generally, still left some that 
might be gleaned afterwards. In Jere- 
miah the order of the illustrations is 
reversed, the vintagers being taken first. 
mb-b °178, night-robbers. In such a 


country as Idumea, a predatory attack 
could only have been attempted in the 
night, especially on such places as were 
most strongly fortified by nature, and 
commanded a view of the immediately 
surrounding regions. Hitzig thinks the 
prophet has Petra specially in his eye, 
on account of its having been the great 
emporium of that part of the world. In- 
stead of 4>-> "370 Ex Ab asa Hoaate, 
Jeremiah has only mista pons DN, 
which is less forcible, He also substitutes 
an*nvn for 12347. The position of the 
words mn 43 a How thou art des- 
troyed, has offended some fastidious crit- 
ics, some of whom would remove them 
to the beginning of the verse, and others 
to the commencement of the following. 
What might be accounted their natural 
place would be the end of the present 
verse; but the prophet, struggling to 
give expression to the feeling which agi- 
tated his mind, breaks in upon his illus- 
trations with the interjected exclama- 
tion, and then carries them on to a close, 
The words are omitted by Jeremiah. 
moa has two leading significations: ¢o 
be dike; and, according with the Arab, 

d, vulneravit, perdidit, to cause to 


cease, destroy, etc. LXX. mod by drep- 
pions ; having read mn-a732, a verb, 
which nowhere occurs in : Niphal. mo, 
their sufficiency, i. e. what was requisite 
for supplying their present wants, or 
such a quantity as they had sufficient 
strength to remove. LXX. 7d ixavda 


Syr. oa Neokos sufficentia 


eorum. ‘The apodosis is omitted; but 
there is a beautiful propriety in leaving 
it to be supplied by those to whom the 
appeal was made. 

6. The prophet here resumes his strain 
of sarcastic plaint over the fall of Idumea, 
which he had abruptly adopted in the 


éavTots. 


188 


OBADIAH. 


And his hidden places searched ! 
7 All thine allies have driven thee to the frontier ; 


Those who were at peace with thee have deceived thee ; 


> 


They have prevailed against thee : 
They that ate thy bread have laid a snare under thee; 
There is no understanding in him! 


preceding verse, repeating the ys there 
employed, which is again understood 
before 323. The patronymic 1z is con- 
strued as a collective noun with the 
plural of the verb, and, at the same 
time, with the singular pronominal affix. 
In the translation I have been obliged to 
employ the singular in both cases. 
BES, like m°279072, may either signify 
places where treasures are hidden, or the 
treasures themselves; or the term may 
be explained of hiding places, to which 
men resort in order to elude an enemy. 
I prefer the last of these significations, 
as better agreeing with the persons of the 
Edomites, mentioned in the former 
‘hemistich ; though the hiding of their 
treasures is also naturally implied. The 
form is that of the Arabic passive 


e) plate. Such places abound in Idu- 


mea. ‘ Revera,” says Jerome, * ut dica- 
mus aliquid de natura loci, omnis aus- 
tralis regio Idumeorum de Eleuthero- 
poli usque Petram et Ailam (hee est 
enim possessio Esau) in specubus habi- 
tatiunculas habet. Et propter nimios 
calores solis, quia meridiana provincia 
est, subterraneis tuguriis uti In- 
stead of the exclamatory form here 
employed, Jeremiah adopts that of 
direct personal assertion ; "MEW "IND 
myMoe—My "Nba Ween; changing, 
at the same time, von into ten, and 
PIES into 2 aa non. 

7, nbs, which in Kal has the signi- 
fication to send, send away, signifies in 
Piel, to dismiss, eject, expel, conveying 
the superadded idea of compulsion or 
violence. Connected, as here, with +», 
the verb implies expulsion beyond the 
frontier specified ; and the whole sen- 
tence is descriptive of transportation into 
a state of captivity. Thus the Targ. 
qrdas wean yo, they shall lead thee 


captive from the border. By Fn. 3 "E28, 
the men of thy covenant, are meant those 
who had formally pledged assistance to 
the Edomites; confederates, allies; by 
Jadu "wae, the men of thy peace, neigh- 
boring states, which were on terms of 
peace and friendship with them. LXX. 
&vdpes eipnvixol, those who were peace- 
ably inclined towards them. Before 
y2n> supply ~g2s from the ——— 
— the men of thy bread ; or “> =k, may 
be understood, those who eat thy bread ; 
and thus the phrase will be descriptive 
of dependents; some of the poorer 
tribes of the desert, who subsisted on the 
bounty of the Edomites, and whose aid 
they might reasonably expect in case of 
any emergency. Comp. Ps. xli. 10, where 
a similar combination of “zn> tos with 
natty ws occurs 5 though there the idea 
of familiarity, rather than that of de- 
pendence, seems intended to be ex- 

pressed. Five of De Rossi’s MSS. and 
cnigitally two more, read j;x"wn, instead 
of S:38"¢7, as also one of the early editions, 
the LXX. and Arab. ; but the common 
reading is to be preferred, To3t>s, thirty 
MSS., originally eleven more, four by 
emendation, the Soncin. and Complut. 
editions, the Soncin. Prophets, and the 
Syr., prefix the copulative, which the dif- 
ference of sense in the two verbs re- 
quires. ‘There is some difficulty in de- 
termining the meaning of i772. LXX. 


Ove 
tvedpa; Syr. [I [Sao insidie, Vulg. 
insidie; Targ. xbpn, offendiculum— all 
agreeing in the idea of treachery, or the 
employment of means by which one 
might be subverted or ensnared. This 
seems to be the only suitable meaning 
in this place, as the signification of 
wound, which ‘attaches to the word, 
Jer. xxx. 13, Hos. vy. 13, the other pas- 











OBADIAH. 189 


8 . Shall I not in that day, saith Jehovah, 
Cause the wise men to perish from Edom ? 
And the men of understanding from Mount Esau ? 


sages in which it occurs, will not, with 
any tolerable degree of propriety, apply. 
Two derivations have been proposed, 


the Arab. x” distendit, equaliter, dis- 
tendit, to which Tingstadius appeals in 
Supplement. ad Lexx. Hebrr. p. 238 ; 
but which is far-fetched, as there is no 
proof that the verb is used in the sense 
of spreading out a net, or the like; and 


gly mentitus fuit, 9; , fallum, mendac- 


tum, with which the Hebrew “3, ¢o 
decline from the way of truth, has been 
compared. The use of Fann 1a7w, they 
place under thee, most naturally suggests 
the idea of a gin or trap, which may be 
said to deceive or act falsely by those 
who tread upon it; so that the.notions 
of treachery, plot, net, snare, may be 
combined in furnishing the true sig- 
nification. First, who derives the word 
from “57, gives the significations thus: 
*‘ cireumligare, obligatio vulneris, fascia, 
hine medicina; moraliter: lagueorum 
connexio, perfidia fallax, insidiosa, frau- 
dulenta.” ‘lo no quarter could the Idu- 
means look for aid. Their allies, their 
neighbors, their very dependents, so far 
from assisting them, would act treach- 
erously towards them, and employ every 
means, both of an open and covert 
nature, to effect their ruin. At the close 
of the verse, the prophet turns off again 
from the direct mode of address, and 
employs the third person, for the purpose 
of more emphatically exposing their folly 
in placing confidence in those who were 
totally ‘unworthy of it. It would be 
highly uncritical, with the Targ., Hougi- 
bant, and Newcome, to change 4a, in 
him, into 53, in thee. 

8. The Idumeans confided, not only 
in the natural strength of their country, 
but in the superiority of their intel- 
lectual. talent. That they excelled in 
the arts and sciences, is abundantly 
proved by the numerous traces of them 
in the sine of Job, which was undoubt- 


edly written in their country. They 
were, indeed, proverbial for their m2>n, 
philosophy, for the cultivation of which, 
their intercourse with Babylon and Egypt 
was exceedingly favorable, as were like- 
wise their means of acquiring informa- 
tion from the numerous caravans whose 
route lay through their country, thus 
forming a chain of communication be- 
tween Europe and India. Speaking 
of wisdom, the author of the book of 
Baruch says, in reference to their celeb- 
rity as sages of antiquity, chap. iii, 22, 
23: 
* Tt hath not been heard of in Canaan, 
Neither hath it been seen in Teman. 
The Hagarenes that seek wisdom upon 
earth, 
The merchants of Meran and of Teman, 
The mythologists, and investigators of . 
intelligence, 
None of these have known the ways of 
wisdom, 
Nor remembered her paths.” 
These sages are here called n»ash, and 
their accumulated stores of wisdom are 
expressed by 7:32”, intelligence, the term 
which had just been employed at the 
close of the preceding verse. The inter- 
rogative xi is here strongly affirmative ; 
and 4 in “NTIS! is merely conversive. 
wy on, the mount of Esau, is the moun- 
tainous region of Seir, to the south of 


es ue, 


Palestine, now called xf 


Jebel Sherah, and vt er od f, esh-Sherah, 


extending as far south as Akabah. It 
was originally inhabited by the Horites, 
or Troglodyte, so called because they 
dwelt in the caves of the mountains, 
whom the posterity of Esau expelled, and 
taking possession of the country, spread 
themselves as far towards the north as 
the borders of Moab. It was particularly 
to the more northerly portion of this 


reign that the name of Jus, Jebel, or 
Gebalene, was given. "m1, mountain, 


190 


OBADIAH. 


9 Thy mighty men, O Teman! shall be dismayed, 

That every one may be cut off from mount Esau. 

10 For the slaughter, for the injury of thy brother Jacob, 
Shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever, 

11 In the day when thou didst take a hostile position, 
In the day when foreighers took captive his forces, 
And strangers entered his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, 
Even thou wast as one of them. 


being here, and verse 9th, obviously used 
in a collective sense I have translated it 
in the plural. 

9. For jy", Teman, see on Amos i. 
12. dup has been variously construed. 
Ewald unnaturally renders it, without 
battle. Schnurrer treats it as a participle 
in Pael or Poel, pointing it Sup or 
bub, and regarding it as equivalent to 


the Arab. sin, vir prelio aptus. He 
would thus make it parallel with tf» 423, 
mighty men, in the preceding hemistich. 
Rosenmiiller, De Wette, and some others, 
translate, by slaughter. Leo Juda, most 
of the older modern translators, followed 
by Jeger, Hesselberg, Hendewerk, and 
Maurer, render, propter cadem, and 
suppose the prophet to be here assign- 
ing the cause of the destruction of the 
Idumeans which he had just predicted, 
intending more fully to dilate on the 
subject in the following verse. To this 
construction, however, it must be ob- 
jected, that it clogs the parallelism, 
which properly ends with yyy =n, as in 
the verse preceding; and also that the 
words przma typ are too closely allied, 
both in form te reference, to admit of 
such a pause as that which is introduced 
by the Soph-Pasuk. I, therefore, do not 
hesitate to follow the division of the 
verses adopted by the LXX., Syr., Hex- 
aplar Syr., Vulg., Dathe, Lively, New- 
come, and Boothroyd, by which tv pn 
is removed from verse 9th, and placed at 
the beginning of verse 10th. 

10. F°ns Den byp. Both nouns 
are in construction with J7ns, and the 
genitive thus formed is that of object: 
the slaughter of, and the violence done to, 
thy brother. ‘The Edomites had not only 


slain the Hebrews, but injured them in 
every possible way; and their cruelties 
were highly aggravated by the considera- 
tion, that those who were the objects of 
them were descended from the same com- 
mon parent. Comp. Amos i. 11. Ja- 
cob is used as a patronymic to denote 
the Jews. Two distinct periods in the 
future history of the Idumeans are here 
pointed out: that during which they 
should be the subjects of ignominy as a 
conquered people: and that during which 
they were to be entirely extinct. From 
the former they recovered about a cen- 
tury before the Christian era; but they 
were reduced by John Hyrcanus, and 
afterwards lost every vestige of their 
separate existence. 

11, This and the three following verses 
contain a series of pointed expostulations, 
which, while they inculpate the Idu- 
means, describe the various modes in 
which they had manifested their malice 
towards the Jews. Some have thought 
that 73272 769 means here to stand aloof, 
to assume a neutral position, whence one 
may observe the movements of two op- 
posing parties; but the declaration at 
the end of the verse, as well as what is 
stated in verses 13th and 14th, clearly 
shows that the phrase is to be taken in a 
hostile sense, as in 2 Sam. xviii. 13 ; Dan. 
x. 13. That t+n is not to be rendered 
wealth or riches in this passage, but forces, 
army, or the like may be inferred from re- 
ference being made to the division of the 
substance of the citizens of Jerusalem by 
lot in the following hemistich. bint 
and e453 describe the Chaldeans, by 
whom Jerusalem was taken. sm is in 
Piel, contracted for 37>. Comp. 3724, 
Lam, iii, 53. Instead of 1334, the read- 


———— 











OBADIAH. 


12 


191 


Thou shouldest not have looked on in the day of thy brother, 


In the day of his being treated as an alien ; 

Thou shouldest not have rejoiced over the sons of Judah, 
In the day of their destruction : 

Neither shouldest thou have spoken insolently 


In the day of distress. 
13 
In the day of their calamity ; 


Thou shouldest not have entered the gate of my people, 


Thou, even thou, shouldest not have looked on their affliction, 


In the day of their calamity ; 


Nor stretched forth thy hand to their wealth, 


In the day of their calamity. 


ing of the text, many MSS., four of the 
earliest printed editions, and some more 
recent ones, exhibit VV, the full form, 
as proposed by the Keri. That the word 
may originally have been read as the sin- 
gular, is clear from its occurrence in this 
number, ver. 13; but then, in both 
cases, it is to be taken as a collec- 
tive. q 
12. The future forms mm yn—tx, 
Sersn-tn een ty, stants, 
m2 nton-be, sicga—by, and naon—bs, 
are all qualified in signification, ‘by the 
circumstance, that the speaker has a past 
event prominently in view, in reference 
to which he places himself and those 
whom he addresses in the time of its 
passing, and points out what was their 
duty in reference to it. They are prop- 
erly subjunctives of negation, expressive 
of what should not have been done, and 
therefore have the usual force of the im- 
perative. “ Verba Hebraeorum seepe non 
actum, sed debitum vel officium signi- 
ficat.”’” Glassii Philolog. Sacr. lib. iii. 
tract. 3, can. 6. Nicholson’s Ewald, 
§ 264. 3 myn, means here ¢o look upon 
with malignant pleasure, to feast one’s 
eyes with the calamity of another, 
June cis, the day of thy brother, is 
afterward explained by i722, D738, 
mAs, ETN, which describe the calamit- 
ous circumstances in which the Jews 
were placed. 14>, day, is often used to 
express a disastrous or calamitous period. 
>:, which is taken actively to denote 


severe treatment, punishment, Job xxxi. 
8, is here used passively of the experience 
of such treatment. Comp. the Arab. 


ye: difficilis ac durus fuit ; gravis ac 


difficitis ; improbavit. The idea radically 
inherent in the term is that of treating 
any one as a stranger, ¢. e. an alien or 
enemy. 75, bonan, to enlarge, or make 
great the mouth, Ger. den Mund .voll 
nehmen : to use insolent or contumelious 
language, such as those employ who 
exult over a fallen foe. Comp. Ezek. 
xxxy. 13. 

(13. px in eat ola => is emphatic, 
minbwnm, some take to be the third plu- 
ral feminine, having for its object D135 
but the entire construction of the pas- 
sage requires the second person singular 
masculine, non. The syllable m3 is 
added with a view to give intensity to 
the verb, as in Jud. v. 26; thus express- 
ing the eagerness with which the Idu- 
means seized upon the spoil. Rosen-. 
miiller is of opinion that the = is pa- 
ragogic, and the » epenthetic; but 
Gesenius is rather inclined to compare 
it with the energetic Future of the 
Arabs. Lehrgeb. p. 801. LXX. ph 


= 7 
ouvemiof 3 Sy. at p72 i 5 
Vulg. non emitteris ; Targ. SHU SINT: 
See for more instances of this intensive 
form Job xvii. 16; Is. xxviii. 3; Exod. 


i. 10. For the omission of 7, Kand, see 
2 Sam. vi. 6: Ps, xviii. 17. 


192 OBADIAH, 


14 Neither shouldest thou have stood at the pass, 
To cut off those of his that escaped ; 


/ 


Neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his 


That were left in the day of distress. 
15 For the day of Jehovah is near against all the nations ; 
As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee ; 
Thy deed shall come back upon thine own head, 
16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, 
So shall all the nations drink continually ; 
Yea, they shall drink and swallow greedily, 
And shall be as though they had not been. 


14. p= is commonly rendered diviam, 
a parting of a way, or a place where a 
road breaks off into two. I should rather 
think, from the idea of violence implied 
in Pu, that it signifies a break or dis- 
ruption in a rock or mountain, through 
which a passage might be effected into 
the region beyond. Comp, n-775 775%, 
1 Kings xix. 11... LXX. diexBoral. Syr. 


| mate , @ narrow passage between 


two mountains. In all probability, the 
reference is to the means employed to 
cut off the retreat of those Jews who at- 
tempted to pass through Idumea on 
their way to Egypt, whither they fled 
from the Chaldeans, p77 by 723, to 
stand at the ravine or pass, graphically 
describes the attitude of those who are 
watching in order to intercept a caravan, 
or a body of travellers, especially in the 
rugged mountainous regions to the south 
of Judea. The Idumeans not only in 
this way prevented the escape of the 
fugitives ; they carried them back as 
prisoners, and delivered them up to the 
enemy. 

15. In this verse, the conquest of Idu- 
mea and all the neighboring nations 
by Nebuchadnezzar is declared to be 
at hand. In the war which he was to 
carry on against them, due retribution 
would be rendered to the Edomites, 
Comp. Ps. exxxvii. 7,8. For the phrase 
sam Dis the day of Jehovah, see on Is. 
ii, 12. 

16. The Targ., Kimchi, Munster, Vata- 
blus, Calvin, Michaelis, Hendewerk, and 
Hitzig, consider the Idumeans to be still 


addressed, and most of them explain 
their drinking on Mount Zion of the fes- 
tivities with which they celebrated the 
victory gained over the Jews. Grotius 
refers the words to the same people, 
only he takes the verb mnvw in the bad 
sense, as denoting the drinking of the 
cup of divine wrath, and renders »7—*», 
“wap, on account of my holy mountain, 
which he explains thus: “ propter Ju- 
dzeam a vobis lacessitam.”. But it seems 


- more natural to regard the words as di- 


rected, by a‘sudden apostrophe, to the 
Jews, assuring them, that, though the 
sufferings to which they had been sub- 
jected were great, still greater punish- 
ment would be inflicted upon the hostile 
nations by which they had been attacked. 
The punishment which they suffered was 
only temporary; that of their enemies 
would be perpetual. The structure of 
the passage requires the verb to be taken 
in the same sense in both parts of* the 
verse. Such, in effect, is the construc- 
tion put upon the words, Jer. xlix. 12. 
Compare also chap. xxv. 15-29. In 
this manner the verse is interpreted by 
Abenezra, Mercer, Tremellius, Drusius, 
Lively, Rosenmiiller, Schnurrer, De 
Wette, Hesselberg, and Maurer. In- 
stead of sar, continually, the reading 
a°25, around, is exhibited in not fewer 
than seventy-eight MSS. ; in seventeen 
more originally ; in three others in the 
margin; in-seven of the earliest printed 
editions ; and afew other authorities: but 
all the ancicnt versions support that of 
the Textus Receptus, which, according 


ee — 


OBADIAH. 


17 
And it shall be holy: 


193 


But in Mount Zion shall be the escaped, 


And the house of Jacob shall enjoy their possessions, 
18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, 

And the house of Joseph a flame ; 

And the house of Esau shall become stubble, 

And they shall set them on fire, and devour them ; 

So that there shall not be a relic of the house of Esau; 


For Jehovah hath spoken it. 


19 And they of the south shall possess Mount Esau, 
And they of the plain, the Philistines ; 
They shall also possess the country of Ephraim, 


to De Rossi, is found in all the most 
accurate and best MSS., both Spanish 
and German. In all probability a-20, 
was substituted by some copyist from 
Jer. xxv. 9. What proves that the LXX, 
had the word =n in their Hebrew text, 
is their having mistaken it for mn, 
rendering it ofvov, wine. yb, to swat- 
low or suck down with greediness. Arab. 


py and se) avidus; |g} > 


multum aque bibit. Comp. »5 the 
throat ; x42, to swallow, etc. The idea 
intended to be conveyed by the use of 
the verb here is that of drinking com- 
pletely off the cup of wrath, as a thirsty 
person would a vessel of water. 

17. Obadiah here commences his pre- 
dictions respecting the restoration of the 
Jews from the Babylonish captivity ; 
their re-occupancy of Canaan; and the 
reign of the Messiah. While the sur- 
rounding nations were to disappear, the 
Jews should regain possession of their 
holy city, and the land of their fathers. 

mucts means such as had survived the 
captivity. wap, holiness, i. e. holy, re- 
fers to Mount Zion, which had been pol- 
luted by the idolatrous Chaldeans. See 
on Joel iv. 17. Jeger and Hesselberg 
refer the suffix in army ina, their pos- 
sessions, to the hostile nations spoken of 
in the preceding verse; but less natur- 
ally. 

18. Though the houses of Jacob and 
Jeseph are here spoken of separately, it 
was not the intention of the prophet 


25 


to teach that the two kingdoms of 
Judah and Israel would be re-estab- 
lished ; yet the special mention of Jo- 
seph clearly shows that the ten tribes 
were to return at the same time, and, 
jointly with Judah and Benjamin, to 
possess the land of Palestine and the 
neighboring regions. See Is. xi. 12-14; 
Hos. i. 11. The restored Hebrews would 
unitedly subdue the Idumeans, which 
they did in the time of John Hyrcanus, 
who compelled them to be circumcised, 
and so incorporated them with the Jews, 
that they henceforward formed part of 
the nation. See Joseph. Antiquities, 
book xiii. chap. ix. 1. For the meta- 
phorical language, comp. Num. xxi. 28 ; 
Is. x. 17; and, for the ground of it, Is. 
v. 24. 

19. By 233, the south, or the southern 
part of Palestine, is meant those who 
should occupy it; and by mbewn, the 
plain, those who should oceupy the low 
country along the shore of the Medi- 
terranean. LXX. Of év NayéB; of ev 
Th Xepadd. According to the relative 
positions of those who should take pos- 
session of the different parts of the holy 
land, was to be the enlargement of 
their territory by the annexation of the 
adjoining regions, which had formerly 
been occupied by alien or hostile powers. 
As there is no subject specified before 
71779 “Ty msi DMIES “Ty rs, it would 
seem to be intimated that the regions 
of Ephraim and Samaria were to be oc-. 
cupied by the Jews and Israelites jointly, 


194 


And the country of Samaria; 
And Benjamin, Gilead. 


OBADIAH. 


20 And the captives of this host of the sons of Israel, 
That are among the Canaanites, 


As far as Zarephath, 


And the captives of Jerusalem, 


That are in Sepharad, 


Shall possess the cities of the south, 


without any regard to tribal distinctions: 
and the reason why the tribe of Benja- 
min is mentioned, is merely on account 
of the proximity of Gilead to the terri- 
tory which it originally possessed. That 
maw is here employed to denote, not a 
plain or level country, but a region or 
district in general, is obvious from the 
nature of the territory to which refer- 
ence is made. The mountainous country 
of Idumea is called pits "Tw, Gen. 
xxxii. 1, 

20. tn, i. e. b9n, an army, host, ete, 
is here used to express the number of 
Israelitish captives which were found in 
Pheenicia, into which they had been sold 
at different times as slaves, and thence 
into Greece. See Joel iii. 6,7. tr2z2> 
is elliptical for o:222, which is the 
reading of three MSS. Before nmEWS 73, 
supply 34> from the following. rp x, 
Zarephath, or Sarepta, now called 
dAS,0, Surafend, a town belonging to 


Sidon, and situated between that city 
and Tyre, close to the shore of the Medi- 
terranean. According to the etymology 
of its name, it must have been a place 
for smelting metals. In the rocks along 
the foot of the hills, Dr. Robinson found 
many excavated tombs, which he makes 
no doubt once belonged to this ancient 
city. Palestine, vol. iii. p. 414. The 
name is still given to a large village on 
a hill at some little distance. What 
city or country is meant by 755, it has 
been hitherto found impossible to de- 
termine. The LXX. ’Egpadd, which in 
all probability is a corruption of Séppa- 
Sd. Aq., Symm. and Theod. cagapds. 


Hexap. Syr. 9-2 Lu: but the Peshito 


ato)” Spain, with which agrees 


wrceos of the Targ.: an interpretation 
unanimously adopted by the Kabbins, 
who in like manner concur in interpret- 
ing renx of France, Jerome, as in- 
structed by his Jewish teacher, renders 
it the Bosphorus. Some refer it to 
Sipphara in Mesopotamia, some _ to 
Sparta, in support of which hypothesis 
they appeal to 1 Macc. xii. 21; while 
others propose m4£0, Sephara, Gen, x. 
30, or the town of Sarpdp, mentioned 
by Ptolemy, as lying between the terri- 
tory of the Homerites and Sabeans. To 
judge from the other geographical rela- 
tions stated in this and the preceding 
verse, we should conjecture, that some — 
place to the south or east of Judea is 
intended. The following list of cities 
and places in the possession of the Jews 
in the time of Alexander Janneus is 
given by Josephus: kata rovroy roy 
Kapov dn Trav Sipwy Kal “lSovpalwr 
Kal Powixwy médcis elxov “lovdaior mpds 
Saddoon uty Srpdtwvos wipyoy, *"AToAAw- 
viay, "Idrrny, "Iduvecav, “ACwrayv, Tdfav, 
*"Avdnddva, ‘Padlay, ‘Pwordroupary’ év 58 TH 
beooyela Kata thy “ISoupatay, “Adwpa, 
kal Mdpicoav, cal Saudpeav, Kapuhdrov 
Bpos, Kal Td "ItaBipiov dpos, Zxvddmo- 
Aw, Tddapa, Tavaavirida, ZedAevceray, 
TdBara, MoaBiridas, ~EooeBov, M*af- 
daha, AeuBa, "Opdvos, TeAlSwva, Zipa, 
Kiducov APA@va, TléAAay — BAAas Te 
méAeis mpwrevovoas THs Xuplas, al Foay 
katecpaypévau, — Antig, book. xiv. ch. 
iv. 4. 

21. Though forty-four MSS., besides 
several others at second hand, and eight 
printed editions, read t°sv472 instead of 
m°y~iv, there is no difference in the 
meaning, the former reading being 


; 
z 
a 





OBADIAH. 195 


21 And deliverers shall come up in Mount Zion. 


‘ To judge Mount Esau ; 


And the kingdom shall be Jehovah’s. 


merely defective in orthography. The 
LXX., Aq., Theod., Syr., and Arab., ap- 
pear to have read p°ywi3 or E*yw5% In 
the passive, which is unsuitable to the 
connection. Jerome observes that the 
word is active. Such saviors, or de- 
liverers are meant, as those who were 
raised up in the time of the Judges. 
There can be little doubt that the cele- 
brated family of the Maccabees are in- 
tended, whose valiant princes governed 
the Jews for the period of an hundred 
and twenty-six years, during which 
time signal victories were guined over 
the Idumeans, as narrated 2 Macc. x. 


15-23, Joseph. Antiq. book. xiii. chap. 
ix. 1. wed is here used in the sense 
of punishing, as in 1 Sam. iii. 13; and 
uED in the phrase 2 Duby nw, Fvad. 
xii. 12; Num. xxviii. 4. ‘Comp. Kpivo, 
Acts vii. 7. The concluding words of 
the prophecy, n=} mint mnim, re- 
fer to he reign of the Messiah, called so 
frequently in the N. T. 4 Bacirela rod 
cod. Comp. Dan, ii. 44, vii. 27. But 
for the introduction of this kingdom, no 
restoration of the Jews would have taken 
place; the temple would have remained 
in ruins, and the land a scene of desola- 
tion. 


JONAH. 





PREFACE. 


AGainsT no book of Scripture have the shafts of infidelity and the sap- 
ping arts of anti-supernaturalism been more strenuously directed than against 
that of the Prophet Jonah. As early as the days of Julian and Porphyry 
it was made the subject of banter and ridicule by the pagans, who accused 
the Christians of credulity for believing the story of the deliverance by 
means of a fish; and, in modern times, while the enemies of revelation have 
evinced the same spirit, many of its pretended friends have had recourse 
to methods of interpretation, which would not only remove the book from 
the category of inspired writings, but, if applied to these writings generally, 
would annihilate much that is strictly historical in its import, and leave us 
to wander in the regions of conjecture and fable. Blasche, Grimm, and 
some others, suppose the whole to have been transacted in a dream; but, 
as Eichhorn justly observes,* there is not a single circumstance in the nar- 
‘rative that would suggest such an idea; and, besides, whenever any account 
is given of a dream in Scripture, the fact that such is the case, is always in- 
timated by the writer. The manner in which the book commences and 
closes, is also objected to this hypothesis, which J. G. A. Miiller + scruples 
not to assert we are on no ground whatever (durch gar nichts,) warranted 
to adopt. The theory of an historical allegory was advanced and maintained 
with great learning, but, at the same time, with the most extravagant license 
of imagination, by the eccentric Herman von der Hardt, Professor of the 
Oriental languages at the university of Helmstedt.{ According to this 
author, Jonah was an historical person, but is here symbolical partly of 
Manasseh, and partly of Josiah, kings of Judah; the ship was the Jewish 
state ; the storm, the political convulsions which threatened its safety; the 
master of the ship, Zadok the high-priest; the great fish, the city of Lybon 
on the Orontes, where Manasseh was detained as a prisoner, etc. Semler 
Michaelis, Herder, Hezel, Stiiudlin, Paulus, Meyer, Eichhorn, Niemeyer, 
etc. have attempted to vindicate to the book’ the character of a parable, a 
fable, an apologue, or a moral fiction; while Dereser, Nachtigal, Ammon, 
Bauer, Goldhorn, Knobel, and others, consider it to have had historical 
basis, and that it has been invested with its present costume in order that 
it might answer didactic purposes. On the other hand, Rosenmiiller, Ge- 


* Einleit. Band iv. § 575. + Palus Memorabilien. Stuck vi. p. 154. 
+ Amnigmata prisci Orbis. Jonas in Luce, etc. Helmstedt. 1723, fol. For the full title of 
this remarkable book, see Rosenmiiller’s Prolegom. 


a 





7 
‘ 
4 
.. 
| 
| 
1 
a 
: 
y 
f 


PREFACE TO JONAH. 197 


senius, De Wette, Maurer, and Winer, derived it from popular tradition ; 
some tracing it to the fable of the deliverance of Andromeda from a sea 
monster, by Perseus, Apollod. ii. 4, 3; Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 662, ete.; and 
some, to that of Hercules, who sprang into the jaws of an immense fish, and 
was three days in its belly, when he undertook to save Hesione, Iliad, xx. 
145, xxi. 442; Diod. Sic. iv. 42; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. Cassand. 33; Cyrill 
Alex. in Jon. ii. 

Much as some of these writers may have in common with each other, there 
are some essential points on which they are totally at variance ; while all 
frankly acknowledge the difficulties which clog the subject. 

The opinion which has been most generally entertained, is that which ac- 
cords to the book a strictly historical character; in other words, which af- 
firms that it is a relation of facts which actually took place in the life and 
experience of the prophet. Nor can I view it in any other light, while I 
hold fast an enlightened belief in the divine authority of the books compos- 
ing the canon of the Old Testament, and place implicit reliance on the au- 
thority of the Son of God. Into the fixed and definite character of the 
canon, I need not here enter, having fully discussed the subject elsewhere ; * 
but assuming that all the books contained in it possess the Divine sanction, 
the test to which I would bring the question, and by which, in my opinion, 
our decision must mainly be formed, is the unqualified manner in which the 
personal existence, miraculous fate, and public ministry of Jonah, are spoken 
of by our Lord. He not only explicitly recognizes the prophetical office of 
the son of Amittai (*Iwva tod pophrov), just as he does that of Elisha, Isaiah, 
and Daniel, but represents his being in the belly of the fish as a real miracle 
(7d onuciov) ; grounds upon it, as a fact, the certainty of the future analogous 
fact in his own history ; assumes the actual execution of the commission of 
the prophet at Nineveh ; positively asserts that the inhabitants of that city 
repented at his preaching; and concludes by declaring respecting himself, 
“ Behold! a greater than Jonah is here.” Matt. xii. 39-41, xvi. 4. Now, 
is it conceivable, that all these historical circumstances would have been 
placed in this prominent light, if the person of the prophet, and the brief 
details of his narrative, had been purely fictitious ? On the same principle 
that the historical bearing of the reference in this case is rejected, may not 
that to the Queen of Sheba, which follows in the connection, be set aside, 


- and the portion of the first book of Kings, in which the circumstances of her 


visit to Solomon are recorded, be converted into an allegory, a moral fiction, 
or a popular tradition? The two cases, as adduced by our Lord, are al- 
together parallel; and the same may be affirmed of the allusion to Tyre and 
Sidon, and that to Sodom in the preceding chapter. 

It may be said, indeed, that a fictitious narrative of the moral kind would 
answer the purpose of our Saviour equally well with one which contained 
a statement of real transactions; just as it has been maintained, that the 
reference made by the Apostle James to the patience of Job, suited his pur- 


* Divine Inspiration, pp. 450-488. 


198 PREFACE TO JONAH. 


pose, irrespective of the actual existence of that patriarch; but, as in the 
one case, a fictitious example of patience would prove only a tame and 
frigid motive to induce to the endurance of actual suffering, so, in the other, 
a merely imaginary repentance must be regarded as little calculated to en- 
force the duties of genuine contrition and amendment of life. 

Certainly in no other instance in which our Saviour adduces passages out 
of the Old Testament for the purpose of illustrating or confirming his doc- 
trines, can it be shown, that any point or circumstance is thus employed 
which is not historically true. He uniformly quotes and reasons upon them 
as containing accounts of universally admitted facts; stamps them as such 
with the high sanction of his divine authority ; and transmits them for the 
confident belief of mankind in all future ages. 

It is only necessary further to add, that if the book had coulda a para- 
ble, the name of some unknown person would have been selected, and not 
that of a prophet to whom a definite historical existence is assigned in the 
Old Testament. On perusing the first sentence, every unprejudiced reader 
must conclude that there had existed such a prophet, and that what follows 
is a simple narrative of facts. The formula -%x} min!—n273 M71 Is so 
appropriated, as the usual introduction to real prophetical communication, 
that to put any other construction. upon it would be a gross violation of one 
of the first principles of interpretation. Comp. 2 Chron. xi. 2; Is. xxxviii. 
4; Jer. i. 4, 11, ii. 1, xiv. 1, xvi. 1, xxviii. 12, xxix. 30; Ezek. ii. 16; Hag. 
i. 1, 3, ii. 20; Zech. iv. 8. 

Against the plenary historical character of the book, the miraculous nature 
of some of the transactions has been objected ; but, referring for an investi- 
gation of these transactions to the commentary, and taking for granted an 
interposition of miraculous agency in the deliverance of the prophet, when 
cast into the sea, may it not be fairly asked whether there is nothing in the 
circumstances of the case to justify such interposition? The commission 
was most important in its own nature, but likewise most unusual, and con- 
fessedly most hazardous in its execution; one from which it was extremely 
natural for Jonah to shrink, and which required the most confirmatory 
evidence of its divine origin to induce him to act upon it. The miracle 
selected for the purpose of furnishing him with this evidence, however extra- 
ordinary in itself, was in exact keeping with the circumstances in which he 





was placed; and, in so far, was parallel with those wrought in connection . 


with the mission of Moses, Exod. iii. iv.; of Elijah, 1 Kings xvii; and of 
Christ and his apostles. And it is undeniable, that most of the writers 
who have called it in question, have either flatly denied the existence of 
all Scripture miracles, or attempted, in some way or other, to account for 
them on mere natural principles. The same mode of reasoning which goes 
to set aside one, will, if fully carried out, go to set aside all. 

That our prophet is the same who predicted the restoration of the ancient 
boundaries of the kingdom of the ten tribes, 2 Kings xiv. 25, is rendered 
certain by identity of name, parentage and office ; and as that prediction re- 
ceived its accomplishment in the reign of Jeroboam IL, it is obvious he must 


ee ee a 


ee ee 











PREFACE TO JONAH. 199 


at least have been contemporary with the monarch, if he did not flourish at 
a still more early period. He is justly considered to have been one of the 
most ancient of all the Hebrew prophets whose writings are contained in the 
canon. 

Whether Jonah composed the book himself, or whether it was written at 
a more recent period, has been matter of dispute. Of the circumstance, that 
he is spoken of in the third person, no account is to be made, since it is a 
style of writing frequently adopted by the sacred penmen, as it also is by 
profane authors. Nor can as occurrence of two or three Chaldee words, as 
T3°ED, a ship, ney to think, tzu, command, be justly objected against the early 
authorship ; for the aie’ must have had considerable intercourse with 


persons who spoke foreign languages, which could not but exert some in- 


fluence on his style. With respect to mae, as it is also the Syriac 
jAteam, and Arabic xiniw, there is every reason to conclude that it 
\ ade 4 


was the nautical term in use among the Pheenicians, and so might have been 
adopted at an early period into all the cognate dialects, though they had 
other words by which to express the same thing. The use of the compound 
particles “$2 and *>2 does not necessarily argue a late date, since there 
was nothing to prevent their being appropriated udder the circumstances of 
the oriphot: just as they came to be adopted, under somewhat similar cir- 
cumstances, by other writers. The employment of 3, the abbreviated form 
of =x, in Judges v. 7, is an undeniable example of its adoption at an early 
period ; and it is indeed very doubtful whether it be proper to regard it as a 
Chaldaism at all, though it is found in some portions of the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures and not in others !* Jt has also been alleged against the antiquity of 
the book, that the writer uses the substantive verb in the past tense, when 
describing the size of Nineveh, n>i33—"°2 Nt «732724, chap. ili. 3; as if 
the city had been destroyed before his time ; but the ‘past tense is evidently 
employed for the simple purpose of preserving uniformity in the style of the 
narrative, and, as De Wette acknowledges, bedeutet nichts.t 

In point of style, the book is remarkable for the simplicity of its prose : the 
only portion of poetry is chap. ii. 3-10, which possesses considerable spirit 
and force, though some parts of it are evidently a repetition of certain sen- 
tences in the Psalms of David, with which the prophet appears to have been 
familiar. 

Of the numerous traditions, both Jewish and Christian, which profess to 
give us information respecting Jonah, I would say with Luther, Das glaube 
wer da will, ich glaube es nicht. All that we learn from Scripture is, that his 
father’s name was Amittai, and that his birth-place was Gath-hepher (na 
renn, 2 Kings xiv. 25; 7£n mma, Josh. xix. 13), a city in the tribe of Ze- 
bulon, from Ghich latter circumstance it appears that he was an Israelite, 
and not a Jew. 

In this book the patience and clemency of God are strikingly contrasted 


* See Holden on Ecclesiastes, Introd. Dissert. pp. 10-13. + Lehrbuch, § 237. 


> 


200 PREFACE TO JONAH. 


with the selfishness and unbelief of man; and, as inserted in the canon of 
Scripture, it was no doubt primarily designed to teach the Jews the moral 
lessons, that the Divine regard was not confined to them alone, but was 
extended to other subjects of the general government of God; that wicked- 
ness, if persisted in, will meet with condign punishment; that God has no 
pleasure in inflicting such punishment, but delights in the repentance of the 
guilty; and that if pagans yielded so prompt a compliance with a single 
prophetic message, it behooved those who were continually instructed by the 
servants of Jehovah, seriously to reflect on the guilt which they contracted 
by refusing to listen to their admonitions. It has been usual to speak of 
Jonah as a type of our Saviour, and numerous points of resemblance have 
been attempted to be established between them, to the no small injury of 
the blessed character of the latter: whereas, there is nothing more in the 
passage of our Lord’s discourse (Matt. xii.), from which the notion has been 
borrowed, than a comparison of his own consignment to the tomb for the 
same space of time which the prophet spent in the belly of the fish.* The 
record of the event in the Jewish Scriptures could never have suggested to 
its readers, before Christ made the reference, the subject in the anticipative 
illustration of which he applies it. 


* See the excellent remarks of the Rev, W. Lindsay Alexander, M. A. on types, in his 
Congregational Lectures, Lect. VIII. 











es 


eS 


i aie Bo 2 


CHAPTER I. 


WE have here an account of the prophet’s commission to preach at Nineveh, and his attempt 
to evade it by embarking for Spain, 1-3; an extraordinary storm by which he was baffled 
in his purpose; the alarm of the sailors, and the means which they adopted for their 
safety ; the detection of Jonah; his being thrown into the sea; and his preservation in the 


belly of a fish, 4-17. 





1 Tne word of Jehovah was communicated to Jonah, the son of 
2 Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and 
proclaim against it; for their wickedness is come up before me, 


1. From the circumstance that the 
book commences with the conjunction 
1, commonly rendered and, some have 
inferred that it is merely the fragment 
of a larger work, written by the same 
hand; but though this particle is most 
commonly used to connect the following 
sentence with something which precedes 
it, and is placed at the beginning of his- 
torical books to mark their connection 
with a foregoing narrative, as Exod. i. 1; 
1 Kings i, 1; Ezra i. 1; yet it is also 
employed inchoatively where there is no 
connection whatever, as Ruth i. 1; Esth. 
i. 1 ; and, as specially parallel, Ezek. i. 1. 
It serves no other purpose in such cases 
than merely to qualify the apocopated 
future, so as to make it represent the 
historical past tense. The proper names 
m2 4°, Jonah, and “Ms, Amittai, signify 
a dove, and veracious or truthful, but 
why they were given to the prophet and 
his father we are not informed. 

2. By an emphatic idiom, tsp, arise, 
is used before another verb, as a term 
of excitement. 33°93 Nuveven, the 
ancient capital of the Assyrian empire, 
was situated on the eastern bank of the 
Tigris, opposite to the modern town of 
Mosul. The name is generally allowed 
to signify “the residence of Ninus,” 
from 42, Ninus, and 733, a dwelling ; 
but, according to Hebrew usage, the 
words should be reversed in order to 
bring out this meaning. By the Greek 
and Roman writers, it is called Nivos, 


26 


Ninus, after its founder, who must have 
been indentical with Nimrod, to whom 
the foundation of the city is ascribed, 
Gen. x. 11. For, that ses, Ashur, is 
there to be understood of the country so 
called, or Assyria, and not of a person of 
that name, is evident from ver. 22, 
where Ashur is mentioned as a descen- 
dant of Shem, and not of Ham. The 
omission of the local =, which might 
have been expected to form m":3x, can- 
not be brought as an objection, since it 
is frequently omitted. See Num. xxxiv. 
4; Deut. iii. 1. In point of size, it might 
‘weil be designated 733 3am “ten, that 
ha city, having been as stated chap. 
iii. 3, “‘ three days’ journey” in circum- 
ference. If we reckon a day’s journey 
at about twenty miles, which is the 
average rate of travelling in the East, it 
will give us sixty miles; which, how 
immense soever it may appear, quite 
agrees with the estimate stated by 
Diodorus Siculus, ii. 3: viz. 480 sta- 
dia in circuit, 150 stadia in length, 
and 90 stadia in breadth. He further 
calls it Nivos peydAn, and adds, ryAl- 
kauTnv 5& moAw ovdels borepoy exTive 
katd Te T) peyedXos TOD mepiBodrod, Kal 
Thy wept 7d Tetxos peyadotpéreay. 
Making every allowance for the large 
spaces occupied by gardens, etc., it must, 
according to the computation specified, 
chap. iv. 11, have contained a population 
of upwards of six hundred thousand 
souls, which is nearly equal to that of 


202 . 


JONAH. 


Cuap. I, 


3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish, from the presence of 
Jehovah; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going 
to Tarshish, and paid the fare thereof, and went down into her, 
to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah. 


Paris. As it had long been the mistress 
of the East, and its situation was favor- 
able for commerce, it possessed immense 
wealth, but was, at the same time, no- 
torious for the most flagrant corruption 
of manners. After a siege of three years, 
it was taken by Arbaces the Mede, 
about the seventh year of Uzziah; and a 
second time by the united forces of 
Cyaxares the Mede, and Nabopolassar, 
viceroy of Babylon, 8, c. 626. m°b> Sap, 
make a proclamation against it. This 
proclamation consisted in the announce- 
ment, that, within the space of forty 
days, the city should be destroyed. ty 
the LXX. and Vulg. render im; and 
some would assign to the word the sig- 
nification ¢o, which $s has, chap. iii. 3 ; 
but it better agrees with the flight of 
Jonah to retain that of against. The 
idea of his going to so great a city for 
the purpose of denouncing punishment 
against its wicked population so appalled 
him that he shrunk from the task. It 
is also more in keeping with the reason 
assigned in the following clause of the 
verse. The phrase 74773 2255 nbz, fo go, 
or come up before Jehovah, is expressive of: 
whatever is supposed specially to attract 
his notice, and require his interference. 
Comp. "35> 82, Gen. vi. 13; "tx mss, 
xix. 21. BaBvady 4 peyddan euvhadn 
évémiov tov @eov, Rev. xvi. 19. Ai 
eAenuooiva gov avéBnoay eis uvnudouvoy 
Zumpoo Fev Tod cod, Acts x. 4. 

3. For s-e4n, Tarshish, see on Is. 
xxiii, 10. The Rabbins vacillate between 
Tarsus and Tunis. Jonathan has sy", 
the sea. Jonah resolved to make his 
escape into the most distant regions of 
the West. Com. Ps. cxxxix. 7. min" "8, 
which strictly means the face, person, or 
presence of Jehovah, is sometimes em- 
ployed to denote the special manifestation 
of his presence, or certain outward and 
visible tokens by which he made himself 
locally known, ‘Thus God promised 


that his presence (28), ¢, e. the sensible 
tokens of his presence, should accompany 
the Hebrews on their march to Canaan, 
Exod. xxxiii. 14. Comp. Ps. ix. 3, 
Ixviii. 2, 8. It is also employed in 


reference to the place or region where, 


such manifestations were vouchsafed, as 
Gen. iv. 14; where it obviously signifies 
the spot where the primitive worship was 
celebrated, and sensible proofs of the 
Divine favor were manifested to the 
worshippers. 1 Sam, i. 22, ii. 18; Ps. 
xlii. 3. In like manner, the place where 
Jacob had intimate communion with 
God, was called by that patriarch ty"35, 
the face, or manifestation of God, Gen. 
xxxii, 31. The interpretation, therefore, 
of David Kimchi, 4-372 85° EN 2UM “> 
min ty magn xd yard nsind Saws, 
mins, he imagined that if he went out 
of the land of Israel, the spirit of proph- 
ecy would not rest upon him, is perhaps 
not wide of the mark. Jarchi to the same 
effect, yoxS msina maw moSw PR, 
The Shekinah does not dwell out of the 
land. ‘Though, as Theodoret observes, he 
well knew that the Lord of the universe 
was everywhere present, yet he supposed 
that it was only at Jerusalem he became 
apparent to men ; dmoAauBdvwv 5& buws 
év wdvn “lepovoaAh abtdy woeioSa thy 
émipdvercay. For the reason of Jonah’s 
flight, see on chap. iv. 2. 714% is used of 
going down to the sea-coast from any in- 
land place, so that it cannot be inferred 
from the use of the term that it was 
at Jerusalem Jonah received his com- 
mission. “p*, Japho, LXX.’Idman, Arab. 
LL, Yapha, Jaffa, Joppa, a celebrated 
harbor on the east coast of the Medi- 
terranean, at the distance of ten hours 
from Jerusalem, of which it is properly 
the seapcrt. However insecure, it was 
used as a harbor as early as the days of 
Solomon, 2 Chron, ii. 16. It was like- 
wise thus appropriated in the Persian 
period, Ezra iii. 7; and was deemed so 








——————————— ee SUL Oe 





- 
a 
a 
7 
: 
q 


~~ 2. . 


 Cuar. L 


ee ee ee ee ee we 


broken. Syriac Zon 


JONAH. 


203 


4 But Jehovah caused a great wind to come down upon the sea, 
and there was a great tempest in the sea, and it was appre- 
5 hended the ship would be wrecked. Then the mariners were 
afraid, and cried, each to his god, and threw out the wares that 
were in the ship into the sea, to lighten her of them; but as for 
Jonah, he had gone down into the innermost part of the vessel, 


and lay fast asleep. 


important in the time of the Maccabees, 
that, when recovered from the Syrians, 
it was fortified, and afterwards under- 
went various fates. Its present population 
amounts to about 7000 souls. si, which 
usually signifies to come, come into, enter, 
is obviously here used in the acceptation 
go, go out. Com. Num. xxxii. 6. =>, 
her hire, i. e. of the vessel, the fare which 
Jonah had to pay for a passage in her; 
not, that he engaged the vessel, as 
Benjoin, after Jarchi, would have it. 
wpona yne> avn wine mn pr, only 
what he was obliged to pay as his share. 
Abenezra. This fare, it has been thought, 
he paid beforehand, that he might secure 
his flight from the land of Judea; but it 
may have been owing to a prudential 
condition on the part of the captain. 
The affix in prey refers to the ship’s 
crew, understood, 

4. The force of S-wr, to cause to come 
down at full length, on application to the 
storm, will appear on consulting Josephus, 
who, speaking of the dangerous naviga- 
tion of Joppa, says: xat& Todroy cadev- 
ovat Tois amd ris *Idrrns brd Toy fw 
mvedua Blaov emmlrre* pmerAauPdperoy 
tm tav tabtn wAwiCouevoy Kadeira. 
* As they were driven about here, a 
violent wind fell upon them, which is 
called by those that sail there, the dlack 
north wind.’ De Bello Jud. iii. ix, 3. 
The whole section deserves to be read. 
Coverdale renders, “* But the Lord hurled 
a greate wynde into the see.” man, the 
ship, i. e., by metonymy, the persons on 
board, thought she would founder. Thus 
Kimchi; but Jarchi, s-m ites ns 
m2, she appeared as if she should be 


e +a 
jasodso 
> 

op o2ASaS was going to be broken, 


or was tossed, etc. LXX. éxivdtveve, 
It is best to render the verb imper- 
sonally. 

5. pmb, mariners, from mb13, salt, the 
quality of the water which thcy navigate. 
Syr. and Arab. the same. Comp. Ezek, 
xxvii. 9, 27,29. Kimchi, p*wiven “Eth, 
those who handle the oars, with reference 
to the ancient mode of propelling vessels 
at sea. Being in all probability Pho- 
nicians, they had each his tutelary deity, 
whose interposition he invoked in the 
hour of danger. From the circumstance 
that o->> signifies vesse/s, Benjoin infers, 
that the ship had not taken in a regular 
cargo, Jonah haying paid the entire 
freight ; but ">> is used with such lati- 
tude of signification in the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures, that it may be understood of any 
kind of manufactured articles, such as 
those enumerated Ezek. xxvii. which 
formed the merchandise of Tyre. These 
the Pheenicians conveyed to Spain, 
whence they brought back cargoes of sil- 
ver, iron, tin, and lead. That something 
more ponderous than a few vessels on 
the deck is meant, is evident from what 
follows in the verse, éxBoAry émojoarro, 
the words employed by the LXX. in 
translating which are the same which are 
used by Luke, Acts xxvii. 18. The dual 
form in m3°Ed “Ms; the sides or two 
sides of the vessel, is not to be pressed ; 
the word in this number being adopted 
in Hebrew usage to express a recess or 
remote part of any place. Comp. Ps. 
exxviii. 3; 1 Sam. xxiv. 4; Is. xiv. 15; 
the innermost part, best expresses the 
meaning. Kimchi otherwise explains it, 
DrnDqn jy Hn be, fo one of the sides, 
and appeals to Judges xii. 7, and Zech. 
ix. 9, in proof of the plural being 
used instead of the singular. See Ge- 
senius, Lehrgeb. p. 665. It has been ob- 


204 


JONAH. 


Cuap. I. 


6 And the captain went close up to him, and said to him: How 


is it, thou art fast asleep ? 


Arise, call to thy God; perhaps Gop 


will think upon us, that we perish not, 
7 And they said to each other: Come, and let us cast lots, that 
we may know on whose account this calamity hath happened to 


8 us: and they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 


And they 


said to him: Tell us now on what account this calamity hath 
happened to us? What is thine occupation ? And whence com- 
9 est thou? What is thy country ? And of what people art thou ? 
And he said to them: I am an Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the 


jected to the historical character of the 
book, that it is not to besupposed that the 
prophet could possibly have composed 
himself to sleep in the circumstances 
here described; but nothing was more 
natural than for a person after the fa- 
tigues of a journey, with a mind worn 
out by excessive anxiety, to be thrown 
in spite of himself, into such a condi- 
tion. 07421, which the LXX. render xa) 
Zpeyxe, is designed to qualify the preced- 
ing verb, by expressing the profound 
stupor into which Jonah had sunk. 
There is a singular beauty in putting 
m2i., the name of the prophet, in the 
nominative absolute. ‘ But as for Jo- 
nah’”’ — while all were full of consterna- 
tion, expecting every moment to become 
a prey to the raging elements, he lay 
perfectly unconscious of what was trans- 
piring. For m3-£, ship, which occurs 
only in this place, see the Preface. 

6. bain lit. the master of the rope- 
men—bam being used as a collective. 
Com. m*n2v 2, chief of the body-guard, 
2 Kings xxv. 8; pro" 0 34, chief of the 


eunuchs. Dan. i. 3. Kimchi explains 
thus: -eS cstoim ex=po b*2bon 
9% Yorn stan pre Pewxw 


Brion, “the ship-men are called rope- 
men, because they draw and loosen the 
ropes, of the mast, according to their 
skill.” LXX. Mpwopeds. Vulg. gubern- 
ator. rrr, to show oneself consider- 
ate, to think Of, set one’s mind upon ; in 
Kal, to invent, fabricate, produce splen- 
did work ; hence the noun rvy, artifi- 
cial work, ‘Song v.14. The idea of shin- 
ing seems to be a secondary mean- 
ing; see Jer. v. 28. Comp. nishgy, 


thoughts, Ps. cxlvi. 4. The verb has 
the signification of thinking, purposing, 
etc. both in Chaldee and Syriac. LXX. 
Targ. trom, Syr. 4,9, 
to deliver. Witzig prefers the idea of 
shining, being friendly, gracious, and the 
like. Having found that their heathen 
deities rendered them no assistance, the 
crew were anxious to try the effect of 
supplication on the part of Jonah to the 
God of the Hebrews, either from the 
supposition that he was stronger than 
their own gods, or that he might be dis- 
pleased with the prophet, and required 
to be placated. It deserves to be noticed, 
that the word for God is here used with 
the article p*ntyn, which is certainly 
designed to give emphasis to it; Gop — 
the true God. Comp. Deut. iv. 35, 
onten sam mins, and 1 Kings xviii, 
39, esnten Nan mon pts sin nin 
Are we to infer from this cicemabaod 
that the captain was a worshipper of Je- 
hovah? 

7-9. The casting of lots was com- 
mon among the nations of antiquity, 
not only when they wished to know 
some future event, but also when they 
would determine cases of difficulty, and 
especially criminal causes, in which no 
witnesses could be obtained. The mode 
of using them is not described in Scrip- 
ture, but from the verb £2, b-En, to fall, 
cause to fall, being commonly employ ed, 
it is probable it was by shaking the lots 
in some box or vase, and then causing 
them to fall on the ground. Comp. 
Prov. xvi. 33, where $-un, to throw down, 
is used, in connection with > Pn, the basonk 


Siavdon. 





en til iii i ie i er i i i 


—a s+ >. — = 


Cuap. I. 


JONAH. 


205 


10 God of heaven, who made the sea, and the dry land. And the 
men were greatly afraid, and said to him: What is this thou 
hast done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the — 

11 presence of Jehovah, because he had told them. They further 


said to him: 


What shall we do to thee, that the sea may cease 


from raging against us? for the sea groweth more and more 


12. tempestuous. 


And he said to them: Take me up, and throw 


me into the sea, and the sea shall cease from raging against 
you; for I know it is on my account this great tempest is upon 


you, 


13 And the men rowed hard to regain the land; but they 


or large fold of the garment in front of 
the body ; intimating, that lots were also 
mixed there for the sake of secrecy. 
"% b3 2, lit. for that which is to whom, i. e. 
"12 792, for whose guilt. 

ver. 8, 3b més mean 10> “UNI, are 
omitted in two of Kennicott’ s MSS. .» in 
the Soncin. edition of the Prophets, and 
in the Vatican copy of the LXX.; and 
Kennicott’s MS. 154, omits ‘=>, most 
probably both by emendation, in order 
to avoid the repetition of what had been 
said in ver. 7. We should rather have 
expected m5 a% 282, “on account of 
what ;” but 2 may be taken in a neuter 


sense, like the corresponding ® } 
in Ethiopic, as indeed, it is in the phrase 
jv a, “ What is thy name?” Jud. 
xiii. 16. Comp. also 1 Sam. xviii. 17, 
“a “2, What is my life ?” Micah i. 5, 
mim mies wemape: saps, “« What 
is the sin of Jacob } ; ””__« What are the 
high places of Judah?” Hexaplar Syr. 


Lids ‘\pSo, on account of what. Leo 


Juda: “unde sit nobis hoc malum.” 
The seamen were anxious to learn every 
particular connected with the history of 
Jonah, in order that they might discover 
the real cause of the storm. 7°, fo fear, 
followed by the accusative, signifies to 
cherish feelings of reverence, to reverence, 
honor, etc., and is not here to be inter- 
preted in the sense of being afraid, which 
would have required the preposition 47a 
before the object in such a case as the 
present. 


The words in’ 


10. n°wy Mm&Irmni, what és this thou 
hast done? is not put for the purpose of 
obtaining information respecting his 
flight, for it is immediately added, that 
he had previously informed them of it, 
but is a formula which is intended to 
produce a strong feeling of disapproba- 
tion in the breast of him to whom it is 
addressed, conveying, at the same time, 
the idea of surprise that he could have 
been guilty of such conduct. Comp. 
Gen. iii. 18, xii. 18, xx. 9. The ques- 
tion shows that what Jonah had said 
respecting the character of the true God, 
had made a deep impression upon the 
minds of the sailors. 

11. They had clearly the conviction, 
that as the prophet was the cause of the 
storm, some step must be taken in order 
to get rid of him ; but how to dispose of 
him they knew not. That they wished, 
if possible, to save his life, is clear from 
the sequel. $21 pnw conveys the idea of 
subsiding, so as no longer to bear down 
upon with violence, and graphically de- 
scribes the threatening attitude of a tem- 
pestuous sea, rising above the ships that 
are exposed to it. fm properly signi- 
fies to settle down, be still, cease from rag- 
ing. “vb. 5>4n, lit. going and storming, 
meaning, to go on, increase, become more 
and more tempestuous ; a common idiom 
in Hebrew. Comp. Exod. xix. 19; 
1 Sam. ii. 26, xvii. 41; Esth. ix. 4; 
Prov. iv, 18. 

13. =nn, to dig, or break forcibly 
through anything, is strongly expressive 
of the great effort made by the seamen 


206 


JONAH. 


Cuap. IL. 


could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against 
14 them. And they cried to Jehovah, and said: O now Jehovah! 
let us not perish, we beseech thee, for this man’s life; and lay 
not innocent blood to our charge: for thou, O Jehovah! hast 


15 done as it pleased thee. 


And they took up Jonah, and threw 
16 him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 


Then the 


men feared Jehovah greatly, and offered a sacrifice to Jehovah, 


and made vows. 


to avoid sacrificing the life of Jonah. 
LXX. mapefid{ovro. At a-d-> supply 

mn AIST me. 
“14. An affecting prayer for pagans 
~ present to the true God! ‘The words, 
sani siwbs mint mes, are peculiarly 
saat and tender. mas, the same as 
sas, which Gesenius takes to be com- 
pounded of ms, oh! and ws3, the usual 
particle of entreaty.. Comp. the Arab. 
}, obsecro, The Keri marks x in 


S72 as eon and a great number 
MSS. read "72. & 52, life, means here life 
that is taken sian having *f2 Dt in- 
nocent blood, corresponding to it in the 
following clause. Comp. Deut. xix. 21; 

2 Sam. xiv. 7. Coverdale, well as to the 
sense, “this man’s death.” ‘The refer- 
ence is not to anything that Jonah had 
done, but to what they were about to do 
tohim. ty t= 43, to give blood upon, 
olay to charge with murder. Syr. 


a be al Pa i. impute not. The sense is, 


let us not be found guilty of killing an 
innocent person. In the concluding 
words of the verse, they refer the whole 
affair to the mysterious providence of 


God. They had not been brought into 
their present circumstances by any con- 
duct of their own; nor could they 
account for the guilt of Jonah, since 
he was chargeable with no act of immo- 
rality. Yet he was the object of Divine 
displeasure. 

15, 16. They now proceed calmly, 
though with great reluctance, to act in 
accordance with what they had been led 
to regard as the will of the Most High. 
The calm appears to have taken: place 
instantaneously. According to the Rab- 
bins, Grotius, and some others, they 
did not actually offer a sacrifice, but 
only purposed to do it before Jehovah, 
a. e. at Jerusalem; but it is more natural 
to conclude that they sacrificed some 
animal that was on board, and vowed 
that they would present greater proofs 
of their gratitude when they returned 
from their voyage. Michaelis thinks 
they intended to perform their vows 
when they reached Spain. 


«Quin; ubi transmisse steterint trans 
zequora classes, 
Et positis aris jam vota in litore solves.” 
JEneid. iii. 403. 





CHAPTER II. 


Wirn the exception of the first and last verses, which give an historical account of the fate 
of Jonah as preserved by a great fish, this chapter contains a brief but beautiful hymn of 


deliverance. 


It was in all probability composed immediately after his reaching the dry 


land, but embodies some of the leading topics in reference to which he called upon Jeho- 


vah during his stay in the deep. 





1 (Cuap. I. 17) Now Jehovah had appointed a great fish to 


a Se 

















Cuavr. II. 


swallow Jonah. 
days and three nights. 


1, (Chap. i. 17, in our common ver- 
sion.) It has been supposed by some 
that the fish here spoken of was created 
at the moment for the purpose of swal- 


' lowing the prophet, though, according 


to Rabbi Tarphon, it was mv. T3177 
mwa 6°, prepared for the purpose at 
the creation of the world; but there is 
nothing in the original word 72% which 
at all suggests the idea of creation or 


production. Like the Arab. ; 


certa quanitate certogue modo definivit 
aliqui rem; decretus fuit, it properly 
signifies to appoint, order, arrange, and 
the like, so that all that can be legiti- 
mately inferred from its use in this place, 
is, that, in the providence of God, the 
animal was brought to the spot at the 
precise time when Jonah was thrown 
into the sea, and its instrumentality 
was wanted for his deliverance. In 
other words, it was the result of a special 
pre-arrangement in the Divine plan, 
according to Which the movements 
of all creatures are regulated, and 
rendered subservient to the purposes 
of God’s universal government. LXX, 
mpocérate. Comp. chap. iv. 6-8. On 
the subject of the fish itself various opin- 
ions have been broached. Mutianus, 
and after him Hermann von der Hardt, 
would have it to be nothing more than 
an inn, with the sign of ‘‘ The Whale,” 
into which Jonah was received after 
having been cast on shore! Less pro- 
posed the theory of a ship with this 
name, which happened to be close by and 
rescued the prophet; while Thaddeus 
supposed that, on being thrown out of 
the vessel, he lighted upon a large fish, 
on which he rode for the time specified, 
and was at last cast on shore! Till the 
time of Bochart it was commonly sup- 
posed to have been the balena, or whale 
properly so called, owing to a mis- 
interpretation of x«jros, Matt. xii. 40, 
which signifies any great fish in general. 
With much ingenuity that learned author 
endeavors to prove, that it must have 
been the carcharias, or dog-fish, which, 


JONAH. 


207 


And Jonah was in the bowels of the fish three 


though not the size of a whale, yet has 
so large a gullet, and so capacious a 
stomach, that one of them has been 
found to contain a warrior, clad in all his 
armor. Bochart, Hierozo. p. ii. lib. v. 
cap. xii. Others have supposed that it 
was a shark, a species of fish abounding 
in the Mediterranean, exceedingly vora- 
cious, and in the belly of which whole 
men have been found. See Parkhurst’s 
Greek Lexicon, ‘sub. voc. Kijtros. But 
we may well acquiesce in the decision of 
Rosenmiiller : “Tota heec de pisce Jone 
disquisitio vana videtur atque inutilis.” 
The Scriptures leave it entirely undecided 
to what species of marine animals the 
fish belonged ; merely stating that it was 
S73 a3, @ great fish, one sufficiently large 
for the occasion. Much has been written 
to relieve the transaction of the miracu- 
lous; but that it is physically possible 
for a human subject, which has been 
accustomed for years to breathe the vital 
air, to exist without respiration, or upon 
the foul air in a fish, for the length of 
time here specified, has never been 
proved. The position of Abenezra is 
the only one that can, with any consist- 
ency, be maintained : mra"nd esa nd 8 
bo EDIEN HTS FRITS ED Hawn sea 
$2 myza, ** No man has the power of 
living in the bowels of a fish for a single 
hour : how much less for such a number 
of hours, except by the operation of a 
miracle.’ The transaction was, as Kim- 
chi observes, p°tsm 472 “mx, one of the 
miracles. As such it is unequivocally 
recognized by our Lord, when he calls it 
a onuetov, a sign or token of divine inter- 
position, a supernatural event, manifes- 
tive of the power of God, Matt. xii. 39 ; 
and it behooves all his disciples implicitly 
and cordially to receive his decision. 
For the period of “three days and three 
nights,” see Whitby on Matt. xii. 40. 

2. For $$en-3, comp. tserm:, 1 Sam. 
ii. 1. Some of the Rabbins, Hezel, and 
others, would argue from the use of 47, 
from, out of, and not 3, in, before “z%, 
that the prayer of Jonah was not pre- 


208 


JONAH. 


Cuapr, IL 


2 And Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the bowels of the 


fish, and said : 


3 I cried because of my distress to Jehovah, 


And he answered me; 


From the interior of Sheol I cried out: 


Thou heardest my voice. 


4 Thou didst cast me into the deep, 


Into the midst of the seas ; 


So that the current surrounded me ; 


sented while he was in the belly of the 
fish, but after his deliverance; but this 
interpretation is justly rejected both by 
Abenezra and Kimchi. The preposition 
marks the place from which he directed 
his thoughts to the Most High. Comp. 
Sind jy, ver. 3; OrPrayi, Ps. cxxx, 
1; 1s%en—pa, Ps. exviii. 5. The final 5 
in ma7n is not feminine, as has been 
supposed, and upon which assumption 
certain Rabbins have built the theory, 
that a still larger female fish swallowed 
that in which Jonah was preserved ; 
but the m paragogic, which corresponds 
to the status emphaticus of the Aramaic, 
and is designed to strengthen the termi- 
nation. For other instances in which it 
is added, at the same time that the noun 
takes the article, comp. nd"14n, Judges 
xiv. 18; mnven, Ps. exvi. 15. The 
position of the accent is of no account. 
3, 4. The hymn which commences 
here is partly descriptive, partly pre- 
catory, and partly eucharistical. These 
two verses are introductory, as is clear 
from the use of "m7 %2x “sy, and give 
expression to the feelings and pious 
exercise of the prophet in the awful 
circumstances into which he had been 
brought. That the language, not only. 
of the prayer, but also of the intro- 
duction, is in part borrowed from the 
Psalms, appears from the following com- 
parison : 
Jonah ii. 3. 
"> TE “MNP 


3922322 minds 


Psalm exx. 1, 
ra 3 non by 
STEED NNR 
xlii. 8. ver. 4. 
Taye. Pha pee te 
rangz 722 panay "y 


ver. 5. 
“FAN §282 
PRY TWAE. MS T22 


Xxxi.e 23. 
“EYES TN 


1 
PTB, Tape CHT 


Ixix, 2. ver. 6. 
. SWEITT DM ANa Dwg "EEN 
SVE 
exlii, 4, ver. 8. 
S°b2 “by Huynms : "wes "by ousnna 
XXxi. 7. ver. 9. 
bntn Domain 
PRT ban reagobon 
iii. 9. ver. 10. 


mywen mind rminsd mnsawe 


On the supposition that Jonah was 
familiar with the Psalms, it was very 
natural for him to incorporate sentences 
taken from them with his own language, 
just as we frequently do in extempore 
prayer, without thinking of the portion 
of Scripture from which they are derived. 
Sind Wor, lit. the belly of Sheol, i. e. the 
vast and hidden receptacle of the de- 
parted. Targ. s2imn n-yy%, from the 
lowest part of the abyss, but less properly. 
The remark of Jerome is: ‘ Ventrum 
inferi alvum ceti intelligamus, que tan- 
te fuit magnitudinis, ut instar obtineret 
inferni.” Before mdasa, ver. 4, supply 
=. “m2, commonly used of a river, but 
here it is to be undérstood of the strong 
current or stream of the sea, which flows 
like a river. There is no foundation for 
the opinion of Abenezra and Kimchi, 
that it was intended to describe the con- 
fluence of the waters of a river with those 
of the sea. 

kal &y motauoto péeSpa 

"OQxeavod, bomep yéveois Tavrecot TéTUK- 

TA. Hiad, xiv. 245. 











Se ee rn ee 


ae ee Se oe 


ae wee ee fy ee 


a a 


maakt Neoely RG ya 


ee ea 


Cuap. II. 


JONAH. 


209 


All thy breakers and thy billows passed over me. 


5 Then I said: 


I am cast out from before thine eyes, 
Yet I will look again towards thy holy temple, 
6 The waters press around me to the very life ; 


The abyss encompasseth me ; 


The weed is bound to my head. 


7 I go down to the clefts of the mountains ; 
As for the earth, her bars are shut upon me for ever. 
But thou wilt bring up my life from destruction, 


- O Jehovah my God! 


Méocow yap meydAot moray Kot Sewe 
péedpa, 

’Nkeavds wév Tara. Odyss, xi. 156. 

Thy 5¢ nat’ OQreavdy morapdy pépe Kdua 
pdoo. Ibid, 638. 


5. Having described his condition, the 
prophet now proceeds to give the words 
of his prayer. mim 72"2, 132, to be be- 
fore the eyes of Jehovah, means to be 
the object of his special notice and care. 
Jonah had fled from the Divine presence 
in Canaan, but now he feels that he is 
expelled even from the abodes of life, 
and cut off, as it were, from the regard 
of that Providence which watches over 
the children of men. Still he does not 
abandon himself to despair. He con- 
fidently expects to be restored to the 
enjoyment of his privileges in the temple 
at Jerusalem, and there to render thanks 
to God for his deliverance. Green would 
supply the negative xb before 5-518, 
and Hitzig would point 4x, yx for ys, 
how; but both without any authority. 
Such sudden transitions from fear to 
hope are frequently expressed in Scrip- 
ture. 

6. wEs—ty, even to, or to the very soul, 
i. e. the animal life; meaning, to the ex- 
tinction of life. 25, is the alga, or 
weed, which abounds at the bottom of 
the sea, and from which the Arabian 
Gulf takes the name of 5:0—02, the sea 
of weeds. Kimchi explains it by sis, 
the papyrus, or bulrush. Gesenius refines 
too, much when he attaches to 2324 in 
this place the idea of binding round ‘the 
head like a turban. Assurediy Jonah 


27 


had no such idea in his mind. He rather 
describes how he felt, as if entangled by 
the sedge or weeds through which he 
was dragged. 

7. D°axp, sections, cuttings, clefts, from 
asp, to cut; Arab, nnd5, abscidit, 
resecuit. Thus the LXX. cyxopas 
épéwv. Vulg. extrema montium. Targ. 
naqy “apy, the roots of the mountains. 
The word describes the deep indentations 
or clefts made in the roots of mountains 
which project into the sea, or those 
divisions which are found in the rocks 
at its bottom. y sn, the earth, is 
emphatically put in the nominative ab- 
solute, as the object to which the affec- 
tions of the prophet still clung. He 
was expelled from it, as from a habi- 
tation, and its bars had been shut upon 
him, so that he could not return. Ge- 
senius takes the bars to be those of Sheol ; 
of Sheol, Is. xxxviii, 10, the phrase here 
must have been m*H423 Sind, and not 
M42 US, if such had been the 
meaning. “2 is put elliptically for 
“ya E300, the verb, “20 being obvi- 
ously implied. Jonah adds, Dbisd, for 
ever, to express the impossibility of his 
ever again reaching the dry land, by any 
effort of his own. Yet, exposed as he 
momentarily was to death in the region 
of corruption (mnt, the pit, or grave,) 
he confidently expresses his hope that 
God would restore him. He asserts his 
interest in Jehovah by calling him “ his 
God.” 


210 


-JONAH. 


8 When my soul was overwhelmed within me, 


I remembered Jehovah ; 


And my prayer came in unto thee, 


Into thy holy temple. 


9 They that regard lying vanities 


Forsake their Benefactor. 


10 But as for me, I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanks- 


giving ; 


What I have vowed I will perform : 
Salvation belongeth to Jehovah. 


1i 


And Jehovah commanded the fish, and it vomited forth 


Jonah upon the dry land. 


8. The prophet here resumes his de- 
scription of the circumstances of distress 
to which he was reduced, his application 
to Jehovah, and the answer which he 
received to his prayer. The composition 
of this and the following verses, like that 
of verses 3 and 4, belongs to a period 
subsequent to his deliverance; yet while 
describing his condition, he occasionally 
directs his language to Jehovah, towards 
whom, as his deliverer, his thoughts nat- 
urally rose, 2mm, to be in a state 
of faintness, swoon, from pu¥, to cover, 
to involve in darkness, overwhelm. LXX. 
well, as it respects the sense: °Ey 7@ 
éxAclrew am euod thy Wuxhv pov. 

9. A striking description of idolaters, 
but which may also be extended to all 
who prefer created objects, in any shape, 
toGod. tron, lit. their mercy or good- 
ness ; by metonymy for their Benefactor : 
i. e. God, the author and source of all 
goodness: the Supreme Good. Comp. 
Ps. exliv. 2, where David calls God his 
son. The word properly signifies Aindness 
or benignity, and most appropriately desig- 
nates Him who is good to all, and whose 
tender mercies are over all his works. 


The Syriac reads, y 2eadauun So; thy - 


mercy, which Green, on this authority 
alone, admits into the text ! 

10. Deeply sensible of the merciful 
interposition of Jehovah on his behalf, 
Jonah now solemnly engages to give ex- 
pression to his feelings of gratitude by 
accompanying his presentation of sacri- 
fice with asong of praise, and faithfully 


performing his vows, of which we may 
conclude, the execution of his commission 
to go to Nineveh formed none of the 
least. The paragogic in mrvz> is in- 
tensive. Comp. Ps. iii. 3. In both pas- 
sages, the deliverance is ascribed to Je- 
hovah as its author, as the 3 in mint} 
imports. ¢ 

On reviewing this prayer, and weigh- 
ing the import of its several terms, it is 
obvious, that though Jonah was in a 
state of consciousness while in the belly 
of the fish, he had no idea that such was 
his situation. On the contrary, he ap- 
pears to have been under the impres- 
sion that he was engulfed in the sea, 
now forcibly carried along by its current, 
now entangled among its weeds, and 
now sinking into the profound ravines 
of its rocks. 

11. Green and Boothroyd, on mere 
conjecture, remove this verse from its 
present position, and insert it before the 
hymn. Such a transposition Hitzig pro- 
nounces to be violent, unnecessary, and 
in short, a perversion of the passage. 
It is not stated where the prophet was 
cast on shore, but in all probability it 
was somewhere on the coast of Palestine, 
According to some, the fish carried him, 
during the three days and three nights, 
down the Mediterranean, and through 
the Archipelago, and the Propontis, into 
the Euxine sea, and deposited him on 
the south coast, at the nearest point to 
Nineveh! Not to mention how the 
Rabbins make him reach that city by 
the Tigris ! ! 








a ee eee te 


Cuap. III. 


JONAH. 


211 


CHAPTER III. 


Tuts chapt. contains an account of the renewal of the prophet’s commission, 1, 2; his preach- 
ing to the Ninevites, 3, 4; the universal humiliation and reformation effected by it, 5-9; 
and the reversal of the Divine sentence by which the city had been doomed to destruc- 


tion, 10. 





1 Ann the word of Jehovah was communicated to Jonah a second 
2 time, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and make the 
3 proclamation to it which I order thee. And Jonah arose, and 
went to Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nin- 
eveh was a great city even to God, of three days’ journey. 
4 And Jonah began to enter the city, a journey of one day ; and 
he proclaimed, and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 


overthrown. 


5 And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and proclaimed a 
fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them, even to the 
6 least of them. And the subject reached the king of Nineveh, 
and he arose from his throne, and put off his robe, and covered 


7 himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes, 


3. Dotad mbin ay, @ city great to 
God. This phrase has been variously ex- 
plained. Some, with Kimchi, deem it 
merely a superlative form ; Gesenius con- 
strues the instrumentally, great through 
God, z. e. through his favor. Others con- 
sider it to be equivalent to <a-mbs 725d, 
before God, Gen. x. 9. Thus the Targ. 
"> <onp, Of this last interpretation I 
approve, as it was most natural to refer 
the size of a city, to which the Hebrews 
could form no adequate conception, to 
the Divine estimation. I have accord- 
ingly rendered the words literally, as our 
preposition ¢o is often used to note opin- 
ion or estimate. For the dimensions of 
Nineveh, as here given, see on chap. i. 
2. The opinion of Abarbanel, that the 
diameter of the city is intended, is justly 
exploded. 

4. It is impossible to determine how 
far Jonah penetrated into Nineveh, since 
it is probable that in making his an- 


And a proclama- 


nouncement he would stop at different 
places, as the crowds might collect around 
him. 

5. When Donte yxxn, believing in 
God, is spoken of in reference to such as 
had previously been ignorant of him, it 
must be taken as involving the recogni- 
tion of his being and character as the 
true God, and not simply their giving 
credit to the announcements of his mes- 
sengers. To express the latter, > j~2x7 


is employed. See Gen. xlv. 26 ; “Is. litt 
1. All, without distinction of age or 
rank, put on sackcloth, the usual attire 
of deep mourning. 

6-8. Who the king of Assyria was at 
the time, is not certain. Pul, the first 
monarch of that empire mentioned by 
name in Scripture, did not begin to reign 
till B. c. 769. Some are of opinion that 
it was Sardanapalus; if so, his repcnt- 
ance was the more remarkable, for ac- 
cording to the ancients he was pro- 


212 JONAH, - Cuapr. TIT. 


tion was made through Nineveh, by order of the king and his 
grandees, saying, Let neither man nor beast, ox nor sheep, taste 
anything ;- let them not feed, neither let them drink water. 

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry 
mightily unto God; and let them turn every one from his 
wicked way, and from the violence which is in their hands. 

9 Who knoweth but that God may turn and repent, and turn 

away from the fierceness of his anger, that we perish not? + 

And God saw their works, that they turned from their wicked 

way, and God repented of the evil which he had said he would 


10 


inflict upon them, and he inflicted it not. 


verbially notorious on account of his pro- 

fligacy. 

«Et venere, et coenis, et plumis Sarda- 
napali,”’ Juvenal, Sat. iii. 


It is said that he composed for his 

epitaph, ‘* Eat, drink, play ; after death 

there is no pleasure.”’ ‘The description of 

the mourning here given is very affect- 

ing. That the irrational animals should 

be represented as partaking in it, is far 

from unnatural. 

‘«‘ Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus 

Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina: nulla 
neque amnem 

Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit 
herbam.” Virg. Ecl. v. 24. 

“‘ Post bellator equus, positis insignibus, 
/&thon 

It lacrymans, guttisque humectat gran- 
dibus ora.” JEneid. xi. 89. 


Plutarch informs us that when Masistias, 
a Persian general, was slain, the horses 
and mules were shorn, as well as the 
Persians themselves. 

9. The Jewish interpreters follow the 
construction put upon the words 37*> "2, 
who knoweth, in the Targum: »1> 72 
y2in wpa Mw, whoever ts conscious 


that there are.crimes in his hands ; only 
Kimchi proposes another, *s"7 y77" "a 
maivnon, He who knoweth the ways of 
repentance ; but it is obviously a formula 
expressive of great guilt, yet involving 
the hope of pardon. Comp. Joel ii. 14. 

10. God is anthropopathically said to 
repent, when he changes his mode of 
procedure, or acts differently from what 
his promises or threatenings had given 
reason to expect. The threatening in 
the present case having been conditional, 
was repealed on the performance of the 
implied condition. To what extent the 
repentance of the Ninevites was genuine 
in its character, and how long the refor- 
mation of manners here specified lasted, 
we are not informed; but there is reason 
to fear it was of short continuance, for 
after their city had been besieged for 
three years by Arbaces the Mede, it was 
taken and destroyed. Diod. Sic. ii. 26, 
etc. Thus fell the ancient Assyrian 
dynasty, and gave place to that of the 
Medes, which continued till the time of 
Cyaxares, when Nineveh, which had 
been rebuilt, was again destroyed, and 
finally ceased to be an imperial residence, 
See Preface to the Book of Nahum. 








ener eee 


Ba 


WLI AA 8 ae 


iti bn Dk 
ete CS 


peer 


eg ee ae 


” 











Cuap. IV. 


JONAH, 


213 


CHAPTER IV. 


Tue selfish and repining spirit of the prophet, and the means employed by Jehovah to re- 


prove and instruct him, are here set forth. 





1 Bur Jonah was exceedingly displeased and vexed. 


And he 


2 prayed to Jehovah, and said: Ah! now, Jehovah! was not this 
my word while I was yet in my own country? Wherefore I an- 
ticipated it by fleeing to Tarshish ; for I knew that thou art a 
gracious and merciful God, long-suffering, and of great kindness, 


3 and repentant of the evil. 


And now, O Jehovah! take, I pray 


thee, my life from me; for my death were better than my life. 
4 And Jehovah said to him: Art thou much vexed ? 


1. Unwarrantable attempts have been 
made to soften down the character of 
Jonah, as exhibited in this chapter. The 
utmost that can be advanced in extenua- 
tion of his conduct, is, the strong tinc- 
ture of national prejudice with which his 
spirit appears to have been imbued. Com. 
Luke ix. 54.¢ mn, however seems to 
be here used, not in the sense of being 
enraged or angry, but in that of being 
the subject of grief or sorrow. Comp. 
1 Sam. xv. 11; 2Sam.vi.8. Grief and 
anger are passions nearly related; and 
in illustration of this application of mn, 
to burn, the following instances may be 
adduced : 


Tis oravdarlCerat, Kal ovK éeyd mv- 
podmat; 2 Cor, xi. 29. 
"AAN & Kadovikn kdopmat Thy Kapdlay, 
Kal odd’ irtp huay Tay yuvaiKay &XSO0- 


pat. Aristoph, Lysist. v. 9. 
« Eheu disperii! voltus neutiquam hujus 
placet. 


Tristis incedit, pectus ardet.” 
Plaut. Mercat. Act iii. Se. 4, v. 14. 
‘* Tum vero exarsit Juveni dolor ossibus 
ingens,” JEneid. v. 172. 
And the declaration of Cicero: Non 
angor, sed ardeo dolore.” — Epist. ad 
Attic. vi. 9. 
2. °"27, my word, i. e. what I spake 


within myself, my cogitation. 


cin is 
here taken in the sense of doing anything 
in order to anticipate another. Jonah 
acknowledges that he used all despatch 
in his attempt to leave Palestine. The 
description of the Divine goodness here 
given agrees verbally with that exhibited 
Joel ii. 13. He recollected the numerous 
instances in which, instead of executing 
his threatenings, Jehovah had, in the 
exercise of his patience, borne with the 
guilty, and even interposed with illus- 
trious acts of pardon ; and he was afraid 
of compromising his character by an- 
nouncing what he had reason to expect 
might never take place. 

45> n= au"nn, most modern versions 
improperly ‘render, ** dost thou well,” or, 
‘is it right in thee to be angry ?”’ their 
authors not adverting to the fact that the 
Hiph. Infinitive of 20° is often used 
adverbially in the acceptation, greatly, 
exceedingly, thoroughly, or the like. See 
Deut. ix. 21, xiii. 15; 2 Kings xi. 18. In 
like manner the finite form nin > A207, 
Jer. i. 12. Thus the ea a opddpa 


AcAvmnou ov; the Syr. a 2 Ps } 
oa) and the Targ. 45 577.7 S7TObn. 


Kimchi explains, -s3 45 mon ss, Art 
thou much grieved? and adds, =u°n 


214 


JONAH, 


Cuar. IV. 


5 And Jonah went out of the city, and sat to the east of the 
‘ eity, and there made a booth for himself, and sat under it in the 
6 shade, till he should see what would happen in the city. And 
Jehovah God had appointed a ricinus plant, and he caused it to 
rise up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to deliver him 
from his affliction: and Jonah rejoiced exceedingly on account of 


the ricinus. 


7 But God appointed a worm, at the rising of the dawn, on the 
8 morrow, and it injured the ricinus, so that it withered. And it 
came to pass at the sun-rise, that God appointed a sultry east 
wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he fainted, 
and requested that he might die; for he said, My death were bet- 


asm prin. is, As for aun, t 
imports the strengthening of a subject. 
The renderings, Will grieving do thee 
any good? and, Does beneficence offend 
thee? are totally to be rejected. 

5. We cannot determine on what day 
Jonah abandoned his labors among the 
Ninevites ; but it is evident from the 
conclusion of this verse, that it must 
have been before the lapse of the forty 
days specified in his announcements. 

6. by21 I take to be the apocopated 
Future of Hiphil, having ponds mim 
for its nominative. 4i>p~p, the kikaion or 
ricinus plant (Ricinus communis, Linn.), 
commonly known by the name of Palma 
Christi. ‘The word is the same as the 
Egyptian KIKI, and the Talmudic K7k, 
with the Hebrew termination. In Arabic 


it is called &3 ya , El-Kheroa, which 


is not to be confounded with gyi ; 


El-Karra, the cucurbita, LXX. Kodo- 
Ktvon. Our English rendering gourd is 
equally inappropriate. This plant is in- 
digenous in India, Palestine, Arabia, Af- 
rica, and the east of Europe, and on ac- 


count of its singular beauty is cultivated. 


in gardens. It is a biannual, and usually 
grows to the height of from eight to ten 
feet. It is chiefly remarkable on account 
of its leaves, which are broad, palmate, 
and serrated, and divided into six or 
seven lobes. Only one leaf grows on 
a branch, but being large, sometimes 
measuring more than a foot, and spread 


out in the shape of an open hand with 
the fingers extended, their collective 
shade affords an excellent shelter from 
the heat of the sun. It is of exceedingly 
quick growth, and has been known in 
America to reach the height even of 
thirteen feet in less than three months, 
When injured it fades with great rapidity. 
See on ver. 10, Celsii Hierobot. pt. ii. 
p- 273; Michaelis, Supplem. No. 2263; 
Rosenmiiller, in the Biblical Cabinet, 
vol. xxvii. p. 125; Michaelis, Bibel 
Ubersetz., note on the passage, where 
there is a plate with an excellent repre- 
sentation of a ricinus. How much such 
a shrub, throwing its palmy branches 
over the small hut which the prophet 
had erected, must have contributed to 
his relief in the sultry environs of Nine- 
vah, may easily be imagined. His joy 
is emphatically described in the last 
clause of the verse. 

8. The t-"> man, or east wind, is the 
sultry and oppressive wind which blows 
in the summer months across the vast 
Arabian desert, and produces universal 
languor and relaxation. It resembles 
the Sirocco, only is free from its damp- 
ness, and consequently more destructive 
to vegetation. Superadded, as in the 
present instance, to the heat of the 
morning sun, it is exceedingly oppres- 
sive. According to the versions, n°" 
signifies withering ; otherwise, as derived 
from wn, it signifies to be quiet, silent, 
etc., which better agrees with the idea of 
sultriness, 





: 
f 
: 
| 
: 
| 
4 


Cuap. IV. 


9 ter than my life. 


JONAH. 


And God said unto Jonah: 
10 vexed on account of the ricinus? And he said: 


215 


Art thou much 
I am much 


vexed, even to death. And Jehovah said: Thou art affected on 
account of the ricinus, with which thou -hadst no trouble, and 
which thou didst not rear, which came in a night, and perished 
11 ina night; and I, should not I be affected on account of Nine- 
veh, that great city, in which are more than twelve times ten 


thousand human beings who 


cannot distinguish between their 


right hand and their left, and much cattle ! 


9. The words nv~7y "S—nih 2007, 
the LXX. translate, SHd5pa AeAUmnuat 
éy® &ws Savdrov, which nearly agree 
with those of our Lord, Mark xiv. 34. 

10. dan, properly signifies to be affected 
by the sight of anything; hence to 
feel concern on account of it, to take 
pity or compassion. I have employed 
the passive form of our verb ¢o affect, 
in order to present in the translation a 
word equivalent to that which is here 
used in the original. There seems to ne- 
cessity for taking the Hebrew verb in two 
acceptations. The formula, > 2b 429 
sax mb1>—ja1 nM, lit. which was the son 
of a night, and perished the son of a night, 
is obviously intended to express the extra- 
ordinary rapidity with which the ricinus 
put forth its leaves and afterwards with- 
ered. That the tree itself was instantane- 
ously produced, cannot be proved from 
this mode of speech, any more than from 
the use of the verb 2%, ver. 6; other- 
wise we should be obliged, for the sake 
of: consistency, to maintain, that the 
whole tree was miraculously destroyed, 
and had entirely disappeared during the 
night. 2m and 73 are strictly anti- 
thetical. But, as all that was required 
in the one case, was that the broad 
spreading leaves should wither, so as no 
longer to afford protection to Jonah, 
though the trunk remained; so all that 
was necessary in the other was to give 
to the tree which had been previously 


produced, such an extraordinary accele- 
rated power of germination, that the 
leaves which would otherwise have re- 
quired some longer time to come to ma- 
turity, were brought to perfection in the 
course of a night. 43, q@ son, is used 
idiomatically to express what is produced, 
or exists, during the time predicated of 
it. Thus it is resolved in the Targ. >=, 
TAN NPWS 85°31 San PIA srbeb5 
which this night was, and in another 
night perished. 

11. The peculiar force of the appeal 
lies in the immense number of rational 
creatures which must have perished had 
Nineveh been destroyed. Estimating 
the age of the children at about three 
years, and assuming them to have formed 
a fifth part of the population, which is 
the allowance generally made, we shall 
have six hundred thousand as the num- 
ber of inhabitants. In order to enhance 
this number, and render it more affect- 
ing, that of the irresponsible children is 
estimated ; and if this did not produce a 
suitable impression upon the mind of the 
prophet, the number even of irrational 
animals is adverted to, the Jatter being far 
superior in point of mechanism and util- 
ity to the shrub for which he was so 
much concerned. 

There is something in the abrupt man- 
ner in which the book closes which is 
highly calculated to produce its effect on 
the mind of a reflecting reader. 


1 


MICAH. 





PREFACE. 


AccorDING to the introductory statement, chap. i. 1, Micah was a native 
of Moresheth, which some take to be the same as Mareshah, ver. 15; but it 
is rather the town called Moresheth-Gath, ver. 14, which, accordiug to Je- 
rome, lay in the vicinity of the city of Eleutheropolis, to the west of Jeru- 
salem, and not far from the border of the country of the Philistines. 

His name, n=", Micah, or, as it is given in full in the Chethib, Jer. xxvi. 
18, m->"0, Micaiah, signifies, who is like Jehovah ? 

The time at which he flourished is stated *in the introduction to have been 
that of the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; 7. e. somewhere between 
B.C. 757 and B. Cc. 699; in addition to which statement, we have a positive 
testimony to his having prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, Jer. xxvi. 18, 
where chap. iii. 12 is verbally quoted. He must, therefore, have been a con- 
temporary of Isaiah and Hosea, and is not to be confounded with Micaiah 
the son of Imlah, 1 Kings xxii. 8, who flourished upwards of a hundred years 
before the reign of Jotham. 

Hartmann and Eichhorn would refer the period of his ministry to the 
region of Manasseh; but their hypothesis is justly rejected by Jahn, Rosen- 
miiller, De Wette, and Knobel, on the ground, that all the circumstances 
brought to view in his prophecies, perfectly harmonize with the state of 
things in the days of the kings whose names are here specified. The unres- 
trained license given to idolatry in the reign of Ahaz, will sufficiently ac- 
count for the numerous gross and crying evils for which Micah reproves the 
Jews, without our having recourse to the atrocities perpetrated in that of Ma- 
nasseh. It is true, Hezekiah issued orders, that idolatry should be put down, 
and the worship of the true God re-established; but there is no reason to be- 
lieve that the reformation was carried out to the full extent of his wishes. 
The relations also of the Hebrews to the powerful empires of Assyria and 
Egypt, are in exact accordance with the history of the same times. 

The prophecies of Micah are directed partly against Judah, and partly 
against Israel; but by far the greater number are of the former description. 
He predicts the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, and of Samaria its vap- 
ital; the desolation of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the consequent cap- 
tivity of the Jews; the restoration of the Jewish state ; the successes of the 
Maccabees; and the advent and reign of the Messiah. He also administers 
reproof to different ranks and conditions of men, and furnishes some striking 
representations of the Divine character. 











ye 
iF 
7 
fa 

: 


Vim 5) kant 


ans = ee gee a Ai 


—— 


PREFACE TO MICAH. 217 


His style is concise, yet perspicuous, nervous, vehement, and energetic ; 
and in many instances, equals that of Isaiah in boldness and sublimity. He. 
is rich and beautiful in the varied use of tropical language; indulges in pa- 
ronomasias; preserves a pure and classical diction; is regular in the forma- 
tion of his parallelisms; and exhibits a roundness in the construction of his 
periods which is not surpassed by his more celebrated contemporary. Both 
in administering threatenings and communicating promises, he evinces great 
tenderness, and shows that his mind was deeply affected by the subjects of 
which he treats. In his appeals he is lofty and energetic. His description 
of the character of Jehovah, chap. vii. 18 — 20, is unrivalled by any con- 
tained elsewhere in Scripture. 

Several prophecies in Micah and Isaiah are remarkably parallel with each 
other; and there is frequently an identity of expression, which can only be 
fairly accounted for on the ground of their having been contemporaneous 
writers, who were not strangers to each other’s prophecies, and their having, 
in a great measure, had the same subjects for the themes of their ministry. 
See on Isaiah ii. 2-4. 

The book may be divided into two parts; the first consisting of chapters 
i—y.; and the second, the two remaining chapters, which are more general 
and didactic in their character. 


28 


CHAPTER I. 


THE prophet commences by summoning universal attention, while, in sublime language, 
he describes the descent of Jehovah to punish the nation, 1-5; he predicts the destruction 
of Samaria by the Assyrians, which he pathetically laments, 6-8; and then the advance 
of Sennacherib against Jerusalem, 9-12; concluding with an enumeration of certain 
towns of Judah, the inhabitants of which had more especially enjoyed his ministry, but 
were to share in the desolating effects of the Assyrian invasion, and ultimately, with the 
whole land, those of the Babylonian captivity. 


s 





1 Tue word of Jehovah which was communicated to Micah the 
Morashthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings 
of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 


2 Hear, all ye people! 


Attend, O Earth! and its fulness ! 
And let the Lord Jehovah testify to you, 
The Lord from his holy temple. 
8 For, behold! Jehovah is coming forth from his place ; 


1, smoi%, contracted “mw “ia, a gen- 
tilic, and not a patronymic, as some have 
imagined. See the introduction, and on 
ver. 14, 

2. It is not a little remarkable, that 
Micah should adopt as the first sentence 
of his prophecy, that with which his 
namesake concluded his denouncement 
against Ahab, 1 Kings xxii. 28. Hengs- 
tenberg is of opinion that he quoted the 
words designedly, in order to show that 
his prophetic agency was to be considered 
as a continuation of that of his prede- 


cessor, who was so zealous for God, and _ 


that he had more in common with him 
than the bare name. The words nx», 
peoples, and 4x, earth, are by many, 
and recently by Hitzig, confined to the 
tribes and land of the Hebrews; but the 
sublimity of the style, and the parallel 
passages, Deut. xxxii. 28, xxxii. 1; and 
Is. i, 2, induce to the conclusion, that 
the prophet had all the inhabitants of the 
globe in his eye. Thus Justi, Maurer, 
and Ewald. 5, all of them, is an 
instance of irregular construction, in 
which the third person is put for the 
second, D=3>, all of you. The same con- 


struction is repeated in =xb12, which the 
LXX. render according to the sense, 
kal mdvres of év avtH. Comp. Amos 
vi.8 ; Is. xlii.10. Instead of nim as 
four of Kennicott’s MSS. read’ nin 

Donbs; and, instead of *i7x antl a 
upwards of fifty of his and De Rossi’s 
read 4m; but as the former cannot be 
altered ‘on the slight authority by which 
it is supported, so it would be unwarrant- 
able to adopt the latter reading, since the 
second 578 is manifestly a repetition of 
the first, LXX, Kipios xvpios. Syr. 


D2. 7-8 
|2ojSo jo the Lord of lords. 
It has been doubted whether by $5°n 
io7p, his holy temple, in this place, the 
temple at Jerusalem or heaven be meant; 
but the language expressive of descent, 
which is employed in the following verse, 
would seem to determine the correctness 
of the latter interpretation. Comp, 1 
Kings vili. 30; Ps. xi. 4. Jehovah 
would bear testimony against the He- 
brews, not any longer by his prophets, as 
he now did, but by the judgments which 
he would inflict upon them. 

3, 4. These verses are explanatory of 





ae ee 


EE 





| 





a res 


SS ee a ee Se ee ae 


a > 


Sh and 








TE NO ee A a 


ee en gr we 


a ee 


Cuap. I. 


MICAH. 


219 


He will descend, and tread upon the heights of the earth. 
4 The mountains shall be molten under him, 
And the valleys shall cleave asunder, © 


Like wax before the fire, 


Like water poured down a precipice. 

5 By the transgression of Jacob is all this, 
And by the sin of the house of Israel. 
What is the trsnegrosion of Jacob? 


Ts it not Samaria ? 


And what are the high places of Judah ? 


Are they not J erusaleti ? 


6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the field, 


that which precedes them, and set forth, 
in highly figurative language, the course 
of the Divine judgment, and the tre- 
mendous consequences that would fol- 
low. The terrible majesty and resistless 
power of Jehovah are expressed in im- 
ages chiefly borrowed from earthquakes 
and volcanic eruptions. Comp. Amos iy. 
13; Ps. 1. 3, xevii. 5; Is. Ixiii. 19, lxiv. 
2; Hab, iii. 5. For a striking image of 
the same nature, see Jer. 1. 25, 26, which 
cannot properly be explained, except on 
the principle of reference to a volcano. 
That of wax occurs Ps. Ixviii. 3, xcyii, 
5. Comp. 
* Quasi igni 
Cera super calido tabescens multa liques- 
cat.” Luer. vi. 512. 

Some MSS. read nivaan, the hills, in- 
stead of D-p PARE the "valleys ; 3 but ob- 
viously as i emendation : the latter 
being the more difficult reading. 15/12, 
a Descent or precipice, from 7°, to go, or 
come down. ‘The events referred to were 
the destruction of the kingdom of Israel 
by Shalmaneser, and the invasion of 
Judah by the armies of Sennacherib and 
Nebuchadnezzar, by the latter of whom 
the Jews were carried away captive. The 
form xx 35 marks the futurity of the 
event, and transmits a future significance 
to the following verbs. 

5. Jacob and Israel are applied to both 
kingdoms in common, and are merely 
used as synonymes for the sake of variety. 
After explicitly declaring, that the awful 
punishment which was about to be in- 


flicted was on account of the sins of the 
people generally, the prophet, by the 
forcible employment of double interrog- 
atives, the latter of which, being in the 
negative, greatly strengthens the appeal, 
traces these sins to their respective sour- 
ces — metropolitan corruption, By me- 
tonymy the effect is put for the cause. 
For 92 used as a neuter, see on Jonah i. 
8. For nixon the LXX., Targ., a con- 
siderable number of MSS., and four of 
the earliest printed editions, have the sin- 
gular. The Syr. and Vulg. agree with 
the Textus Receptus. mam? nia, the 
high places of Judah, were the elevated 
spots on mountains and hills on which 
the Jews erected chapels and altars for 
unlawful, and very often for idolatrous 
sacrifice, etc. 1 Kings xii. 3, xiv. 4; 
Ezek, vi. 6. That these existed at Jeru- 
salem, see Jer, xxxii. 35; and for the 
length to which the practice was carried 
in the time of Ahaz, see 2 Kings xvi. 4. 
Instead of ni3, the LXX., Syr., and 
Targ. translate, as if mnXun, sin, were the 
true reading: What is the sin of Judah? 
but though the latter word is found in 
one of Kennicott’s MSS., and in the mar- 
gin of another, it most probably origin- 
ated in a desire to render the parallelism 
complete, and cannot be allowed to en- 
croach upon the present text. 

6. Both in this and the preceding 
verse Samaria is taken up first, because 
its destruction was to precede that of 
Jerusalem, and also, perhaps, to afford 
the prophet an opportunity of afterwards 


220 MICAH. 


The plantations of a vineyard: 


-Cuar. L. 


I will hurl her stones into the valley, 


- And lay bare her foundations, 


7 All her images shall be broken to pieces, 
All her rewards shall be burnt with fire, 
And all her idols will. I lay waste ; 
‘For with the reward of a harlot she collected them, 
And to the reward of a harlot they shall return. 


expatiating more at large on the state of 
things in Judah during the approaching 
invasion. So complete should be the 
overthrow of the northern capital, that 
its site would resemble a heap of stones 
or rubbish that had been gathered out 
of a field; it would even be reduced to 
what we may suppose it originally to 
have been, a place for the cultivation of 
the vine. Vineyards were most com- 
monly planted on the south sides of 
hills or mountains, on account of their 
exposure to the sun; and in all pro- 
bability that of Samaria had been appro- 
priated to this purpose before it was 
purchased by Omri, 1 Kings xvi. 24. 
The stones of the city are graphically 
said to be hurled down into the deep 
valley below; and that such was actually 
the case, the present phenomena of the 
ruins strongly attest. ‘The whole face 
of this part of the hill suggests the idea 
that the buildings of the ancient city 
had been thrown down from the brow of 
the hill. Ascending to the top, we went 
round the whole summit, and found 
marks of the same process everywhere.” 
— Narrative of the Scottish Mission of 
Inquiry, pp. 293,294. "m9an,and p43, 
ver. 4, are from the root "22, to flow, 
pour, or hurl down. For mbax 3d, 
comp. Ezek.,xiii. 14. The very ’ founda- 
tions of the edifices were to be laid bare, 
great and ponderous as the stones might 


7. The prophet now delivers a special 
prediction against the objects and accom- 
paniments of the idolatrous worship, 
which drew down the judgment of God 
upon the devoted city. The t*>*>s were 
the images or idols, whether carved, 
graven or molten, which were erected in 
the temples, for the purpose of receiving 


religious adoration. LXX. 7&4 yAumrd. 
j2ms, properly means the wages or re- 
ward of prostitution ; from 72m, to give 
a present or reward. 'The word is here, 
as elsewhere, employed in application to 
idolatry, viewed as spiritual adultery or 
fornication. Comp. Is. xxiii. 17, 18; 
Ezek. xvi. 31, 34; Hos. ix. 1. Kim- 
chi, Abarbanel, Michaelis, Maurer, and 
others, are of opinion that the riches, etc., 
of Samaria are thus spoken of, because 
her idolatrous inhabitants imagined, that 
they were rewards bestowed upon them 
by their gods for their zeal and devoted- 
ness to their service. It is more likely, 
however, that the rich gifts or presents 
are meant, which the apostate Israelites 
dedicated to their idols, and with which 
they adorned their temples. Comp. 
Ezek. xvi. 33, 34. Newcome seems to 
incline to the idea, that the rewards of 
harlotry, literally taken, are intended, 
because these were appropriated to the 
support of idolatry. tp azz is synony- 
mous With p°>-o8; only Hitzig thinks, 
that a more costly ‘kind of idols is meant 
by the term, such as were made of silver, 
and were of sufficient value-to be carried 
away as spoil. The entire establishment 
of idolatry was to be broken up ; the idols 
were to be cut in pieces; such as were of 
wood, to be burnt in the fire ; and what- 
ever was costly was: to be removed by 
the enemy to Assyria, there to be again 
devoted to idols. Instead of mx2/, three 
of De Rossi’s MSS., three more originally, 
and perhaps one more, the Brixian and 
another ancient edition, without place 
or date, read nsaPp in Pual, which two 
of Kennicott’s exhibit with Vau Shurek 
instead of the Kibbutz. The Syr., Targ., 
and Vulg., likewise have the passive, but 








———————— Oe 





Cuap. I. 


MICAH. 221 


8 Therefore will I wail and howl; 


I will go stripped and naked ; 


I will set up a wailing like the wolves, 
And a mourning like the ostriches. 
9 For her wounds are desperate ; 


Surely it hath come to Judah ; 


He reacheth to the gate of my people, 


Even to Jerusalem. 
10 Tell it not in Gath ; 


in the plural. The LXX. render, cuv}- 
yarye; Which agrees with the common 
punctuation. 

8. So terrible should be the destruc- 
tion with which the northern kingdom 
would be visited, that it called for the 
most marked tones and signs of sorrow. 
In these the prophet declares he would 
indulge, that he might thereby affect the 
minds of his countrymen. =5*x, with 
Yod, may have been occasioned by the 
preceding form ->*>-s; but there are 
other verbs which do not reject it in the 
future, as -p5>, Ps. Ixxii. 14. 55-3, or, as 
the Keri has it, $$1¥%, some interpret of 
mental bereavement, a state in which the 
mind is despoiled of its reasoning powers ; 
but, combined as it here is with pin», 
niked, it must be referred to the body, 
and was in all probability designed to 
describe the feet as stripped of shoes. 
Thus the LXX. dvumdderos. The Syr. 


: aig as» for which compare 5h", Is. xx. 


2. For Oran, wolves, and 7229 P5DD, 08- 
triches, see on Is. xiii. 22, and Pococke’s 
very elaborate note on the present verse. 


The Arab. has here, slit Jin, 
like the wolves, and “aah wlis io, 


like the jackals. The former Michaelis 
renders crocodiles, but less properly ,on ac- 
count of the combination. The ancient 
rendering, dragons, is altogether to be 
rejected. Both kinds are selected on ac- 
count of the piteously howling noice 
which they make, especially in the 
night. 

9. MPN, the Pahul Participle of tx, 
to be desperately sick ; spoken of a wound, 
to be incurable. ‘There is no necessity, 


with Michaelis, to have recourse to 55, 
and so to regard the form as the elongated 
future of the first person singular. The 
following noun, 5n1>%, being in the 
plural, the same number might be ex- 
pected in the Participle; but it is a rule 
of Hebrew syntax, that when, as in this 
instance the predicate precedes the noun, 
the number of feminine plurals is fre- 
quently neglected. Comp. Jer. iv. 14. 
What the prophet has in view is the irre- 
trievable ruin in which the Israelites as 
a nation would be involved. But he not 
only beholds, in prophetic vision, the 
devastation of Samaria and its depend- 
encies by the Assyrians; he sees their 
invasion of Judah under Sennacherib, 
and their investment of Jerusalem. Com, 
Is. x. 28-32. The nominative to mxz 
is the calamity implied in m*niz%: that 
to ¥23 is a3ix, the enemy, understood. 
There is the utmost propriety in the dis- 
tinctive use of the genders in this place; 
for though the inhabitants of Judah suf- 
fered from the Assyrian invasion, the 
calamity did not reach those of the capi- 
tal: it was merely invested by the troops 
of Rabshakeh, and was relieved by their 
miraculous destruction. See Is. xxxvi. 
XXXVii. 

10. Comp. 2 Sam. i. 20, where the 
words s7"an—bs mas occur, though not 
in the same order of arrangement. The 
Philistines would hail with joy tidings 
of any disaster that might befall the 
Hebrews, and especially that occasioned 
by the Assyrian attack. Deeply, there- 
fore, as the Jews might be afflicted, they 
are cautioned by Micah not to give 
such public expression to their grief as 
would reach the ears of their natural 


222 


Weep not in Acco: 


MICAH, ‘ 


Cuap, I. 


At Beth-aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 
11 Pass on, thou inhabitant of Shaphir, naked and ashamed ; 


enemies, but to repair to Beth-Aphrah, a 
city in the tribe of Benjamin, and there 
deplore in secret the calamity which had 
overtaken the land. Reland, Harenberg, 
Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, take 422 to 
be a contraction of i>¥3, which Gesenius 
(Lex. sub. voc. i>¥) is inclined to adopt. 
According to this construction, the ren- 
dering will be, weep not in Acco, i. e. 
Ptolemais, a maritime city in the tribe of 
Asher, Other instances of » hi drop- 
ped, we have in »3 for »»2, 52 for Sy3, 
etc. ; and certainly the parallelism with 
rsa, the continued list of the names of 
cities, and the regularity of the paro- 
nomasias 17"3AH—N33; 1D3H—iDa; 0°33 
mes mer}, are all in favor of this in- 
terpretation, Though Acco was allotted 
to the Asherites, they never took posses- 
sion of it, Jud. i. 81, and its inhabitants 
are, therefore, appositely classed along 
with those of Gath, as taking pleasure 
in the reverses of the Israelites. The 
reading of the LXX. oi ’Evoxelu ui, is in 
all probability a corruption of of év”Axe: 
u, Which quite accords with the preced- 
ing of év Tes wh The Arabic has 


mich? LRt,, And those who 


are in Akim. The name”Axy occurs in 
Strabo, xvi. 2, 25. The town is still 


called (Xie, Akka, by the Arabs, and is 
known to Europeans by the name of Sé. 
Jean d@’ Acre, which it obtained in the 
time of the crusades, and is celebrated in 
later times by its holding out a siege of 
sixty-one days by the French army, and 
its destruction by the explosion of a mag- 
azine during the bombardment in 1840. 
It is situated on the north angle of a 
bay of the same name near the foot of 
Mount Carmel. m4ez> m3, lit. the 
House of Aphrah, or simply mp3, Oph- 
rah, Josh, xviii. 23; 1 Sam. xiii. 17, a 
city in the tribe of Benjamin. The } is 
here merely the sign of the genitive. 
The verb 58 which occurs only in Hith- 
pael, signifies to wallow or roll, as in dust, 


ashes, or the like. See Jer. vi. 26, xxv. 
34; Ezek. xxvii. 30. While the He- 
brews were not to expose the wretched- 
ness of their condition to the contempt 
of foreigners, it became them to bewail it 
within their own borders. »v RENT , roll 
thyself, is to be preferred to -mobenn, I 
roll myself. It is the reading of the 
Keri, and many MSS. have it in the 
text. The Syr., Targ., and Vulg., have 
the third person plural, which is more 
easily traceable to "w>enn than to 
smidenn. Besides, it seems more nat- 
ural ‘to ‘connect this verb with "733 in 
the following verse, than to suppose that 
the prophet resumes his lamentation ver. 
8. Some take the verb to be the second 
feminine of the preterite, with the Yod 
paragogic; but every difficulty. is re- 
moved by adopting the imperative. 

11. In b2b “29, the second singular 
feminine of the verb is followed by the 
second plural masculine of the pronoun, 
on the principle that though the collec- 
tive participial noun may4> is feminine, 
it was designed to include ‘the inhabitants 
of both sexes. m2 is not redundant, as 
Justi asserts, but emphatic, as the Dativus 
incommodi, "5, Shaphir, means fair 
or beautiful. Dr. Robinson states that 
there are still three villages of the name 
of Sawdfir, which are noted on the map 
as lying nearly halfway between Ashdod 
and Eleutheropolis, a position not much 
differing from that assigned by Eusebius 
and Jerome to Saphir. Palestine, vol. 
ii. p. 370. Hitzig and Ewald think that 
=~2y, Shamir, is meant, which is enu- 
merated among the cities of Judah, Josh, 
xv. 48, which Eusebius calls Zapelp. The 
Chald. of the Targ. >a: yis> nap 
“"bwa is very improperly rendered in the 
Latin, “Transite vobis qui habitatis in pul- 
chritudine,” though the LXX. had trans- 
lated yrs word gd Kar@s. The Syr. has 


. on 3 [250kah, inhabitress of Sha- 


phir. To Samaria there seems no good 
reason to refer it, since all the other 








Cuapr. I. 


MICAH. 


223 


The inhabitant of Zaanan goeth not forth ; 

The wailing of Beth-ezel will take away continuance from you. 
12 Surely the inhabitant of Maroth pineth for her goods, 

Because evil hath come down from Jehovah, 


To the gate of Jerusalem. 


13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish! 


places = tara in the connection were in 
Judah. nga-ny, lit. nakedness, shame, 
for estate naked, t. e. entirely so. 
Comp. as to form, PLS, Ps. xiv. 5. 
What is here predicted is, that the 
inhabitants of Shaphir were to be led 
away as captives by the Assyrians; only 
for the sake of effect the Imperative is 
used. See on Is. vi. 10. For the naked 
condition in which captives were re- 
moved, see on Is. xx. 4. INS, Zaanan, 
in all probability the same as 33s, Zenan, 
a city in the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 37. 
It properly signifies the place of flocks ; 
but to form a paronomasia with it, the 
prophet employs the verb xx; or the 
peculiar orthography of the noun may 
have been adopted in order to make it 
correspond in appearance and sound with 
the verb. Comp. 38x, ss, and m3, 
which are only different modes of express- 
ing sheep or flocks. The inhabitants of 
this city, under the influence of fear, did 
not venture forth from their retirement 
to condole with their neighbors who had 
been taken prisoners by the enemy, or 
they did not come forth to their rescue. 
LXX, Zevvatp. Aq. Zevady. S=NT N73, 
Beth-ezel, in all probability the same as 
bun, Azel, Zech. xiv. 5, but where the 
town so called was situated, we are not 
informed. To judge from the connec- 
tion, it must have been in the vicinity 
of Shaphir and Zaanan, and not near 
Samaria, as Ephraim Syrus conjectured. 
The words ta Mp bssn na Bd 
InT, have pesaits ‘perplexed interpre- 
ters. Some regard “=d%a as the Aramaic 
Infinitive, and connect’ it with the pre- 
eeding myx; and, supposing s>ix, the 
snoens understood, to be the nominative 
to np, explain my of a military post. 
But this construction affords no tolerable 
sense. Others render mi, measure, 
conjecture, and the like, contrary to all 


usage. For other interpretations, see 
Pococke, in foc. It seems best to abide 
by the idea suggested by the root "ay, to 
remain, continue, endure, and interpret, 
As for the wailing of Beth-ezel, it taketh 
away tts continuance from you ; i, e. the 
inhabitants of that city cease to mourn 
on your account. The Shaphirites are 
addressed, as having gone at once into 
captivity and oblivion. Most likely their 
city was larger and more populous, and 
on this account was attacked by the 
Assyrians, while the smaller towns in 
the neighborhood escaped. Gesenius 
thinks that in Sx: there is an allusion 


to the Arabic etymology iol, firmly, 


or deeply rooted in the earth, as what was 
so might be expected to continue ; but 
this is very doubtful. 

12, Of minx, Maroth, (bitternesses,) 
we have nowhere any account. mz%, 
Maarath, Josh. xv. ‘50, to which New- 
come refers, appears to have been a dif- 
ferent place. From the relation in 
which it is here put to Jerusalem, it 
probably lay between the afore-men- 
tioned towns and the capital, against 
which a great army under Rabshakeh 
proceeded from Lachish, and doubtless 
nate all that came in their way. 
nits nbn, Newcome, after Houbigant, 
changes into nya> mon, and renders, és 
sick unto death ; ‘but altogether without 
authority. The meaning is, that the 
inhabitants were pained or grieved on 
account of the property of which they 
had been robbed by the enemy. Thus 

enmiiller, Gesenius, De Wette, and 
Hesselberg. The former “> is not causa- 
tive, but is used, as frequently at the 
beginning of a verse, to express certainty. 
For the last clause, compare ver. 9. 

13. For Lachish, see on Is. xxxvi. 2. 
vey and ost Dy pert a paronomasia. US» 


224 


MICAH, 


Cuapr. I. 


(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion) 

Surely in thee were found the transgressions of Israel. 
14 Therefore thou shalt give a divorce to Moresheth-Gath ; 

The houses of Achzib shall prove false to the kings of Israel. 
15 Farther, I will bring the possessor to thee, O inhabitant of 


Mareshah ! 


He shall come to Adullam, the glory of Israel. 


signifies a fleet courser. Arab. (94 y 
cucurrit. iin is in the musculine, though 
connecting with nai> in the feminine, 
because placed first in the order of the 
words. The word occurs only here, but 
obviously has the signification of the Arab. 


py: ligavit. As anoun th- signifies 


broom, ateube this shrub was used 
for binding. In the middle clause of 
the verse there is a change of person 
from the second to the third, but in the 
last clause the second is resumed. For 
a similar instance, in which, for the sake 
of graphic effect the third person is 
thus abruptly introduced, see Is. xxii. 16. 
Lachish appears to have formed the link 
of idolatry between Israel and Judah, 
Lying on the frontier of the former 
kingdom, she was the first city in Judah 
that was led away by the sin of Jeroboam, 
and from her the infection spread, till at 
length it. reached Jerusalem itself. In 
the prospect of a sudden attack, it be- 
hooved the inhabitants to use all despatch 
in removing their families, and what 
property they could take with them, to a 
distance. Lachish was besieged by Sen- 
nacherib before the threatened attack on 
Jerusalem, 2 Kings xviii. 14. 

14. trmsdd is used of the presents or 
dowry sent with a wife, 1 Kings ix. 16, 
and of letters of divorce sen¢ with her 
when she is dismissed by her husband. 
In the acceptation éfarocreAAopévous, 
messengers, as given by the LXX,, it 
nowhere occurs. The term appears to 
be here employed metaphorically to de- 
note the breaking up, or dissolution of all 
connection between Lachish and More- 
sheth-Gath; the former city having 
been taken by the Assyrians, was no 


longer able to afford protection or support 
to the latter. The nominative to *:nn, 
is nagi> in the preceding verse. by is 
equivalent, in this connection, to x. 
roi, Moresheth, the birth-place of 
Micah, (see Preface) is here said to belong 
to Gath, most probably because it was 
in its vicinity, and under its jurisdiction, 
when in possession of the Philistines, 
ar5s, Achzib. There were two cities of 
this ‘name, one on the sea-coast, between 
Acco and Tyre, now called by the Arabs 


|, Ez-Zib. Josh. xix. 29; Jud. i. 


31; and the other in the tribe of Judah, 
between Keilah and Mareshah, Josh. xv. 
44, That the latter is here intended, is 
evident from the connection ; for though, 
at first view, the mention of the kings of 
Israel might lead us to suppose that a 
city bordering on the northern kingdom 
is meant, yet the fact that Israel is 
sometimes put for the whole people of 
the Hebrews, and sometimes even for 
the kingdom of Judah, as 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 19, proves, that the mere use of 
the term can form no objection to this 
construction of the passage. It was most 
probably the same place that is called 
a"t>, Chezib, Gen. xxxviii. 5. By an 
elegant paronomasia, a*t=8 "M3, the 
houses of Achzib, are said to become 
arss, deceitful. Comp. 128 $32, a de- 
ccit ful torrent, i.e. one which, having 
dried up, disappoints the hope of the tray- 
eller. Jobvi. 17-19; Jer. xv..18. Arab. 


=) oS fefellit, irritus vanusque fecit. 
The expectations of further aid from the 
families, or inhabitants of that place, 
should prove fruitless. 

15. ax is a defective reading of x*38, 
which many MSS, have in the text. In 











Cuap, II. 


MICAH. 


220 


16 Make bald thy head, and shave it because of thy dying child- 


ren ; 


Enlarge thy baldness like that of the eagle ; 
For they are gone into captivity from thee. 


waiy and mo is another paronomasia., 
Mareshuh lay in the plains of Judah, 
Josh. xv. 44. It was fortified by Reho- 
boam, 2 Chron. xi. 8, and was famous 
for the victory obtained over the Ethio- 
pians by Asa, 2 Chron. xiv. 9,10. Ac- 
cording to Josephus, Antiq. xii. 8, 6, it 
had been in the power of the Idumeans, 
but was retaken by Alexander the son 
of Aristobulus, Antiq. xili. 15, 4, xiv. 
1, 4. The possessor or occupier here 
predicted is Sennacherib, who took Ma- 
reshah and the other fortified cities of 
Judah, 2 Kings xviii. 14. To point him 
out with greater emphasis the article is 
used : S-9m, “ The possessor.” 573, 
Adullam, was another city of Judah in 
the same direction, and near the former, 
Josh. xv. 35. It was a royal residence 
in the time of the Canaanites, Josh. 
xii. 15; was fortified by Rehoboam, 
2 Chron. xi. 7; and had villages de- 
pendent upon it, Neh. xi, 30. Of 4a 
Ss 7 various interpretations have been 
given; such as the wealth or riches of 
Israel, their multitude, their nobility, 
their weight of calamity, ete. Some take 
the words to be in the nominative, some 
in the accusative, and some in the 
vocative case. The most natural con- 
struction is that of our common version, 
according to which they are in apposi- 
tion with 57%, Adullam,-and express 
the superior sityation of the place and 
its neighborhood. Thus also Schmidius, 
Rosenmiiller, and Hesselberg. 


16. The prophet concludes this geo- 
graphical part of his denunciations by 
addressing himself to the land of Judah, 
and calling upon her to put on signs of 
deep-felt grief on account of the removal 
of her inhabitants. ‘4x, land, is to be 
supplied, rather than V3 na, daughter 
of Zion. Baldness, and cutting off the 
beard, are tokens of mourning in the 
East, as they were among the nations 
of antiquity. Ezra ix. 3; Job i. 20; 
Jer. vii. 21, xvi. 6, xlviii. 37. * Regulos 
quosdam barbam posuisse et uxorem cap- 
ita rasisse, ad indicium maximi luctus.” 
Suetonius, in his Life of Caligula, chap. v. 
«When Khaled ben Walid ben Mogairah 
died, there was not a female of the house 
of Mogairah, either matron or maiden, 
who caused not her hair to be cut off at 
his funeral.” Harmer’s Observ. iii. p. 5. 
One species of eagle is called the bald 
eagle, from the circumstance of its having 
its head almost entirely bald; but they 
all more or less exhibit baldness during 
the moulting season. D32En, delights, 


from 3:9, Arab. 


S, amatorius, fo- 
mine gestus, to delight, be delighted, live 
delicately, It is in the former of these 
acceptations that the noun is here used. 

As but few of the inhabitants of Judah 
could have been carried away by Sen- 
nacherib, it is obvious the prophet must 
have a much more desolating calamity 
in view in this verse, viz., the Babylonish 
captivity. 





CHAPTER II. 


HAVING announced the punishments which were to be inflicted upon his people for the 
evils in which they indulged, Micah now proceeds to specify some of these evils, 1, 2; 
and renews his denunciations, 3--5. He then censures those who could not endure to hear 


29 


226 MICAH. Cuap. IT, 


the truth, but wished for predictions of good, and shows that no such predictions could 
reasonably be expected by them, 6-11; concluding, however, with gracious promises of 


restoration after the captivity, 12, 13. 





1 Wo to those who devise wickedness, 

' And fabricate evil upon their beds ; 
In the morning light they effect it, 
Because it is in the power of their hand. 

2 They covet fields, and take them by force, 
And houses, and take them away: 
They oppress a man and his house, 


A man and his possession. 
8 Wherefore thus saith Jehovah : 


Behold! I devise an evil against this family, 


1. Comp. Is. x. 1, 2. In the verbs 
nun, dvs, and nizy, is evidently a gra- 
dation. ‘The first describes the concep- 
tion of the evil purpose in the mind; the 
second, the preparation or maturing of 
the scheme; and the third, the carrying 
of it into effect. Comp. Ps. lviii. 3; Is. 
xli.4; Hos. xi. 9. The m in maty. is 
the feminine used as a neuter, to agree 
with the nouns 4738 and 94, as forming a 
neuter plural accusative. The phrase 
“= 32 bs occurs also Gen. xxxi. 29 ; Prov. 
iii. 27; and with the negative, Deut. 
xxviii. 32; Neh. vy. 5. It is rendered by 
the LXX. ob« jpav mpds Tov Sedy xeipas 


ai’tav, Which the Syr. gives without 
Vee 


. > p 
the negative: OTL | eae 


lout Zed, and lift up their hands to 


God. Vulg. quoniam contra Deum est 
manus eorum. Some consider the words 
to be equivalent to the Dextra mihi Deus 
of Virgil, and appeal to Job xii. 6, and 
Hab. i. 11, where, however, the phrase- 
ology is different; while others take $x 
to be the shorter form of the demonstra- 
tive pronoun m>s. But the true mean- 
ing seems to be that given in our com- 
mon version, according to which ¢y is to 
be taken in its literal signification of 
power, strength, ete. ‘Thus Pococke, 
Rosenmiiller, Bauer, Dathe, De Wette, 
Gesenius, Hitzig, and Ewald, after the 


Targ. jim" N5°h mes ws, and Kim- 
chi, D295 Piwsds Eta MS wo *5, be- 
cause there is power in their hand to 
oppress the poor. Just as the LXX. 
render, ioxve: } xelp, Gen. xxxi. 29, and 
Deut. xxviii. 32. That »5 is to be taken 
causatively, and not conditionally, is 
evident from the connection. 

2. Before oma repeat sn. Fifty- 
two MSS., six by correction, two origin- 
ally; four ancient and nineteen other 
printed editions; the Alex. MS. of the 
LXX., the Targ., Vulg., and Arab., omit 
1 before wo». The parallelisms in this 
verse are very elegant. 

3. 23m and my correspond here to 
"avn and 34 in ver. 1. mnHev%2 Rosen- 
miiller and Maurer understand to signify 
‘“‘certum genus hominum nequam et per- 
versum ;”’ as if the prophet intended to 
single out such of the people as com- 
mitted the atrocious acts specified ver. 
2; but it is more likely that the whole 
people, viewed as rebellious and corrupt, 
is meant. Seeon Amos iii. 1. The figure 
of a yoke is here employed for the purpose 
of expressing the heavy and oppressive 
nature of the bondage to which the He- 
brews were to be subjected. ps7, 
thence, has the force of a pronoun in 


this place. LXX. 2 dy. Syr. ouids. 
Comp. Gen, iii. 23; 1 Kings xvii. 13; 











Cuap. II. 


MICAH. 


227 


From which ye shall not withdraw your necks, 
Neither shall ye walk haughtily ; 


For it shall be an evil time. 


4 In that day shall one sing a ditty respecting you, 
And employ a doleful lamentation, 


And say: 


Weare utterly destroyed. 


He hath changed the portion of my people, 
How hath he withdrawn it from me! 
To an apostate he hath divided our fields! 
5 Therefore thou shalt not have one to cast the line by lot, 
In the congregation of Jehovah, 


Ezek. v. 3. So oppressive should be the 
yoke, that it would be impossible for 
them to hold themselves erect. LXX. 
épSol. Targ. mips, nexpt- The term 
main is selected ‘with special reference to 
the elated and haughty manner in which 
they had conducted themselves. It is 
properly a substantive, from tan, fo be 
high, but is here used adverbially. 

4, For dv sw, see ons. xiv. 4, The 
verb is here used impersonally. That 
this Mashal was to be employed by the 
Jews themselves, and not by their ene- 
mies, is evident from its tenor, as it fol- 
lows in the verse. roby, therefore, is 
not to be rendered against you, but on 
your account. m2 2 AM, naha, nehi, 
nihyah, form an “elegant paronomasia, 
There can be no doubt that *m2, /amenta- 
tion, is derived from 733, to dament ; but 
whether 773 be likewise derived from it, 
and consequently merely the feminine of 
“72, or whether it be the Niphal of the 
substantive verb 27, ¢o be, is disputed. 
The harshness that would arise from 
rendering the words, One shall lament 
with a lamentation, it is done! militates 
against the latter derivation ; whereas, 
by taking all the three words as cognates, 
having the same signification, the sentence 
is at once easy and forcible. The relative 
position of the verbs xiv3, m3, and "798 
confirms this construction. Thus the 
LXX. and Vulg. nal Spnyndhoera Sphvos 
év pére, et cantabitur canticum cum 
suavitate. And the Arab., employing 
for the two first words terms cognate with 


the Hebrew, uss on ces 


mn is the feminine of »72, just as 728 
is of "au, and moa of mo. The femi- 
nine is added to the masculine for the 
sake of emphasis. Comp. Is. iii. 1, 
only there the nouns are joined by the 
copulative 1. The three verbs above 
specified are used impersonally. The 
nominative ro the following verbs, “"%2", 
oa", and ¢ P2, $11°, is Jehovah, understood. 


=n, Syr. pbo, to buy ; in Aphel pats] 
to sell, or deliver an article into the hand 
of the purchaser ; Arab. yb, hue itllue 


mota fuit res, transivit. The verb is 
here employed to convey the idea of a 
change of masters, or the passing of the 
land of the Hebrews into the power of 
their enemies. 224% is a verbal noun, 
from the Pilel of 33%, to turn, turn back ; 
here used in a bad sense, one who has 
turned back, or away from God; apos- 
tate, rebel, cdolater. Comp. Is, xlvii. 10, 
lvii. 17; Jer. xlix. 4. The idolatrous 
king of Babylon i is meant. 

5. 425 is a repetition of that used at 
the beginning of ver. 3, and for the same 
purpose. The nominative to 7}, thee, is 
ty, people, occurring in the preceding 
verse; and the denunciation relates to 
their being completely at the disposal of 
their enemies : none of themselves being 
permitted to allot to them portions of 
the land for inheritance. According to 
Hitzig the words are addressed by the 
ungodly Jews to Micah himself, and 


228 


MICAH. 


Cuap. II, 


6 Prophesy not; those shall prophesy 
Who will not prophesy of these things : 


Reproaches are incessant. 


7 What language, O house of Jacob! 
Is the Spirit of Jehovah shortened ? 


Are these his operations ? 


Do not my words benefit him that walketh uprightly ? 


intimate that they would put him and 
his family to death for prophesying 
against them. 

6. The words j52:2 aD t+y 
mosb sE:2—Nb, which contain a smooth 
and elegant paronomasia, are very enig- 
matical, but must neither be rendered, 
«Prophesy not, they say to those who 
should prophesy : they shall not prophesy 
to such.” Or: ‘ Prophesy not; they 
shall prophesy who will not prophesy of 
such things.” In the former case the 
interdicting language of the rebellious to 
the prophets is simply given, and then 
we have the Divine declaration, that it 
should be as they desired. They should 
be judicially abandoned to their own 
ways; and, as they would not hearken 
to the prophets when they predicted evil, 
they should be deprived of their ministry 
altogether, and not receive from them 
any predictions of good. In the latter, 
the language is entirely that of the 
people, by which they not merely stop 
the mouths of the true prophets, but de- 
clare that those only should be permitted 
to prophesy to them who abstained from 
denunciations of evil. The former re- 
quires 4x5 to be supplied before 725-25 ; 
the latter, “ES & before yp dos. The 
formula + San is used ver, 11, both in 
reference to the persons to whom the pre- 
diction is addressed, and to that which is 
the subject of the prophecy: 53 areas 
522, “I will prophecy to thee of wine.’ 
Though contrary to the Masoretic division 
of the words, I prefer the second of the 
above modes of construction, as being the 
easier of the two. The use of the para- 
gogic 3 in Ene. forms no objection ; 
for though it is most commonly found at 
the end of a sentence, yet there are many 
instances in which it occurs at the be- 
ginning, or in the middle. See Gen. 


xvili, 28-31; Exod. xviii. 26; Deut. 
viii. 3; 1 Sam, ii. 22; Ps. xi. 2, lxviii. 
13; Is. viii, 12. For 5 >un, see on 
Amos vii. 16. In the concluding words 
of the verse, mi%ab> 50° 8b, literally, ca- 
lumnies depart not, the Jews indignantly 
tax the prophets with exposing them to 
contempt by incessant castigation and re- 
proof, Of this interpretation Maurer 
observes, * ut facillima et simplissima 
per se est, ita ad nexum est aptissima.” 
The verb occurring first, is in the mas- 
culine singular, though the noun is a 
feminine plural. See Gesen. § 144, 
Ward’s edit. 

7. The prophet boldly meets the charge 
expressed in the concluding clause of the 
preceding verse by asking, Whether the 
absence of auspicious predictions could 
possibly be ascribed to any deficiency on 
the part of the Spirit of prophecy? 
whether the judgments denounced were 
operations in which Jehovah delighted, 
and were not rather procured by the 
wickedness of those on whom they were 
to be inflicted? and whether it was not 
a fact which experience had ever verified, 
that the Divine communications were 
productive of good to men of science and 
consistent piety? In “s%xn the m is 
used as a qualifying demonstrative with 
all the force of an indignant exclama- 
tion, in order to point out the flagrant 
character of the language employed by 
the Israelites. “nzx is the Pahul Part, 
signifying what is said or spoken, and 
with the m prefixed, O dictum! Almost 
all the versions and Lexicons assign to 
this participle the signification of being 
called or named ; but this notion attaches 
to the verb only in Niphal, which, in 
such case, is uniformly followed by the 
preposition 4. See Is. iv. 3, xix, 18; 
Hos. ii. 1. The LXX., Aq., Vulg., and 


PP 


a 


by TiS 


ee ae ae 


a timetcee ailll 


Cuap. II. 


MICAH. 


229 


8 But of old my people hath risen up as an enemy ; 
Ye strip off the vestment as well as the robe 
From those who walk along securely, 
From those who are returning from battle. 
9 The women of my people ye thrust out from their darling home ; 
From their children ye take away my glory for ever. 


Targ., have read sa, which is found in 
four of Kennicott’s MSS. Ewald: “«O 
des Wortes!”” As min -xp, short of 
breath or spirit, is contrasted with SAN 
tres, long-suffering, Prov. xiv. 29, ad 
is ‘obviously equivalent to BTES “S/, ver. 
17, (comp. man “xP, Exod. vi. 9 ,») most 
of the moderns render in the present in- 
stance, Is Jehovah prone to anger? but 
prophecy being the subject to which re- 
ference had just been made, it is more 
natural to understand min main, the 
Spirit of Jehovah, in its appropriated 
meaning, as designating the Divine Au- 
thor of prophetic communications ; and 
to take the verb in the sense of weakness 
or tnability. Comp. 72 "sp, short of 
hand, Is. xxxvii. 27. ; mby, ‘these, like 
mbx, ver. 6, refers to the judgments 
which the Lord had threatened to in- 
flict. The interrogative form, as fre- 
quently, requires a decided negative; such 
judgments are not Jehovah’s usual opera- 
tions. Comp. Is. xxviii. 21; Lam. iii. 
33; Mic. vii. 18. In xbin wan, the 
substantive, which is used adverbially, 
is placed first, for the sake of emphasis, 
and on this account also it takes the 
article, which properly belongs to 7>4n. 
A similar instance of transposition occurs 

in stn “Rds Job xxxi. 26, where the sub- 
stantive is likewise used adverbially. 
For the meaning of the phrase, comp. 
Bh abn, Prov. ii, 7; ind: qbh, Is 
lvii. 2 ; 

8. 5 at the beginning of this verse is 
strongly adversative. Very different was 
the character of those whom the prophet 
Was now reproving. ‘cnx, properly 
yesterday, is taken by some to signify 
lately ; but it is more in keeping with 
the spirit of the passage to render it an- 
ciently, of old, or the like. See on Is. 
xxx. 33. The rebellious conduct of 


the Hebrew nation was no new thing. 
It had characterized every period of its 
history. LXX. gumpoodev. Abulwalid, 
contrary to the usage of the language, 
divides the word into my and $1, and 
renders, on the contrary. ‘Thus also the 
Vulg. The in aris is expressive of 
manner; comp. pres Is, xxsii.:; 1, 
baxava_is selected to correspond i in allit- 
eration with booms, and is here equiv- 
alent to 251, or ty73. It refers, not to 


IN immediately following, but to the 
persons of those who were plundered. 
Though divided by the accent, m2$% and 
“78 are to be regarded as asyndeta ; the 
former, signifying the large loose gar- 
ment which was worn immediately over 
the tunic, and which being indispensable 
to the Orientals, is placed first, for the 
sake of emphasis; the latter, the costly 
robe of fur, or other rich stuff, the rob- 
bery of which, under the circumstances 
described, was a matter of course. So 
great was the rapacity of the lawless 
characters spoken of, that they were not 
satisfied with the more valuable part of 
the dress, but likewise possessed them- 
selves of what was less costly. Comp. 
Matt. v. 40. For maby (by eae tet 
tion of the first two letters of nb, 
which is much more frequently in use,) 


comp. the Arab. Ld, vestimentum, 


pec. totum corpus involvens, from iy 


circumdedit, Before »a,% repeat the pre- 
position 2. The passive participle is here 
used intransitively to describe those who 
were returning after having defeated their 
enemy in battle, and who might there- 
fore be considered perfectly secure. Even 
they were waylaid by their countrymen 
and neighbors, and robbed of the spoils 
which they had taken in war. 

9. In T2382 and 17%>>, there is, as 


230 


MICAH. 


Cuap. II. 


10 Arise! depart! for this is not the place of your rest ; 
Because of pollution it will destroy. 
And the destruction shall be grievous. 

11 Ifany one, conversant with wind and falsehood, lie, saying 
I will prophesy to thee of wine and strong drink, 
Even he shall be the prophet of this people. 


frequently, a transition from the plural 
to the singular pronoun. As the prophet 
refers to war, itis most likely he intended 
by the ** women,” the widows of those 
who had fallen in battle, and who ought 
to have been objects of special sympathy 
and care. Instead of which, both they 
and their fatherless children were expelled 
from their homes, and robbed of their 
property. “75, my ornament, collec- 
tively for the ornamental clothes which 
they wore, and with which they had 
been provided by Jehovah. The Holy 
Land, and everything connected with it, 
was his, so that whatever was enjoyed 
by its inhabitants, was to be regarded as 
peculiarly a Divine gift. Comp. Hos. ii. 
8. Dbizb, for ever, i. e. never to make 
restitution. Some think there is refer- 
ence to the command to restore the 
pledge before sun-set, Exod. xxii. 26, 
but this is doubtful. 

10. As the Imperative is frequently 
used by the prophets to express more 
strongly the certainty of a prediction 
than a simple future would have done, 
nots s1oxp are to be so understood here. 
See on Is. vi. 10. Hitzig preposterously 
considers the words to be addressed by 
the pitiless Jews to the persons whom 
they oppressed by expelling them from 
their homes. They are obviously to be 
viewed as the language of Jehovah, 
threatening them with a removal from 
their own country, which they had pol- 
luted by their crimes, to a foreign and 
heathen land. Canaan was conferred 
upon the Hebrews as a rest, or place of 
quiet enjoyment, after their fatigues and 
troubles in the wilderness, Num. x. 33; 
Deut. xii. 9; Ps. xev. 11. Before mss, 
supply ys. The definite article in 
mryasvert is ; equivalent to the pronominal 
affix ts, and is to be rendered accord- 


ingly. A land may be said to destroy 
its inhabitants, when it withholds from 
them the means of subsistence, and forces 
them to leave it. With such reference it 
is described as devouring them and spew- 
ing them out of it, Lev. xviii. 28, xx. 22, 
xxvi. 38; Ezek. xxxvi. 12-14. The 
comparison of these passages shows the 
propriety of the Piel tann, and renders 
unnecessary the passive forms $3 nn and 
tann, which some have proposed. ' For 


V1%22 comp. the Arab. Ue morbus 


Suit, only its signfications would seem to 
be taken from the idea of a violent or 
deadly disease. ‘Thus ns72 meSe, a 
grievous curse, 1 Kings ii. 8. Geis 
renders 99123 ban, corruptio vehemen- 
tissima, 

11. Micah reverts to the subject of 
smooth and flattering predictions, which 
he had spoken of ver. 6, and shows that 
so corrupt had the people become, that 
no prophet might expect to be acceptable 
to them who did not sanction their 
sinful indulgences. To those who did, 
they would give a ready ear. As Fx 
signifies both wind and spirit, there is 
great force in representing those who 
pretended to inspiration as walking or 
being familiar with the wind : so utterly 
worthless was the instruction which they 
communicated. hm 5>m is otherwise 
i hee to nan dh Hos. ix. 7, and 


Dathe thinks this verse would better fit 
in after ver. 6, but there is no authority 
for the transposition ; and, besides, there 
is a singular propriety in bringing forward 
the crowning sin of the Jews, viz. their 
preferring false prophets to the faithful 
messengers of Jehovah, just before intro- 
ducing the glorious prediction of their 
restoration from captivity in the follow- 
ing verse. 











RE SUNT SAE ag Re ts capt ue en er 


aie ha 


Cuap, II. 


MICAH. 231 


12 I will surely gather thee entirely, O Jacob! 
I will surely collect the remainder of Israel ; 
I will put them together like the sheep of Bozrah, 
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture ; 


They shall be in commotion, 


Because of the multitude of men. 
13 The Breaker is gone up before them ; j 
They break through and pass to the gate; 


12, 18. Theodoret, Kimchi, Calvin, 
Drusius, De Dieu, Grotius, Tarnovius, 
and others, consider these verses to be a 
denunciation of punishment, and not a 
promise of deliverance; while Struensee, 
Hezel, Michaelis, and Forsayeth (in 
Newcome) regard them as the language 
of the false prophets, continued from 
ver. 11. Ewald, who takes the same 
view, thinks they were originally written 
by Micah on the margin of his manu- 
script, and has printed them in Italics, 
within brackets. Most modern inter- 
preters, however, and among them 
Rosenmiiller, Dathe, Justi, Hartmann, 
Maurer, and even Hitzig, are unanimous 


- in viewing them as predictive of the 


restoration of the Jews after their disper- 
sion. The manner in which the prophet 
concludes the preceding verse, proves 
that he had finished what he had to 
deliver respecting the favor shown to 
false prophets; and his sudden and 
abrupt transition to better times is so 
entirely in accordance with the manner 
of the prophets, that the last-mentioned 
interpretation at once recommends itself 
as the true. The point most difficult to 
determine is the point to which the 
prophecy has respect. Most Christian 
expositors explain it of the appearance 
of Christ, and his collecting of believers 
into his church ; but this construction is 
altogether arbitrary, resting on no other 
foundation than the principle of giving 
a spiritual interpretation to whatever 
may, by possibility, be so interpreted. 
So far is there from being anything in 
the phraseology of the text to warrant 
such appropriation of it, that the very 
terms compel to an adoption of the 
literal sense. Kimchi, Jarchi, and the 
Jews generally, as also seyeral modern 


Christian writers, maintain, that the 
prophecy relates to the future literal re- 
storation of the Jews under the Messiah. 
For my part, I cannot but regard the 
more immediate restoration from the 
literal Babylon as the theme of the in- 
spired announcement. ‘The deliverance 
predicted is the same to which reference 
is made chap. iv. 10, the scene of which 
is there expressly declared to be Babylon. 
«‘ Jacob’”’ stands here for the ten tribes, as 
in Is. xvii. 4; Hos. xii. 2; and “Israel” 
for the kingdom of Judah, as in Obad. 18, 
2 Chron. xii. 1, xix. 8, xxi. 2,4. The 
two tribes and a half being few com- 
pared with the ten, might well be de- 
scribed as mo=nv, the remainder, which 
had been left in the land at the time of 
the Assyrian invasion. To express the 
great extent of the population after the 
return, it is compared to the large col- 
lections of sheep in the folds of Bozrah ; 
a region celebrated for the abundance of 
its flocks. The Targ., Vulg., Gesenius, 
Winer, Hitzig, and Ewald, render =>=5, 
sheep-fold, but this signification of the 
word is totally unsupported by usage, 
and is not allowed by Lee. The 
LXX., mistaking 5 for the preposition, 
translate, év SAfve:. It is seldom we 
meet with the article prefixed to a noun 
taking the pronominal affix, as in in2373 
yet see Josh. vii. 21, viii. 33. By yin, 
the Breaker, some understand Cyrus ; 
but the identity of structure between this 
sentence and the two with which the 
verse closes, compels us to interpret the 
term of Jehovah himself, who, through 
the instrumentality of that monarch, re- 
moved every obstacle which prevented 
the return of the Hebrews to their own 
land. When his providence so visibly 
interposed, it was easy for them to break 


232 


They go out at it; 


MICAH. 


Cuap. III. 


Their King passeth on before them, 


Even Jehovah at their head. 


down the minor barriers which had con- 
fined them in Babylonia, and triumph- 
antly to march out through the gates of 
the hostile city. To intimate that they 
should suffer molestation from no enemy 
by the way, God is represented as going 
before them, like a monarch at the head 
of his army; just as he was said to go 
before his people when they went up 
from Egypt, Deut. i. 30. In the illus- 
trious Deliverer here exhibited, Rosen- 
miiller recognizes the Messiah: “ Per- 
ruptor, denrTinas, est enim cum 7 de- 
monstrativo, Loquitur ergo de certa 


quadam persona, et antonomastice sic 
dicta, que mox vocabitur cst, rex 
illorum et min, ut non sit dubium, 
Nostrum de Messia cogitasse, seu divino 
illo heroe, quo auspice, devictis omnibus 
Judzorum hostibus, aureum seculum or- 
bem beabit.”” And to his interpretation 
I accede, only restricting the work of the 
Messiah, as here predicted, to his leading 
forth the Jews from Babylon. Comp. 
Exod. xxxiii, 14; Is. Ixiii. 9, in which 
we are taught that the Divine Logos 
delivered, and conducted the Israelites 
through the wilderness, 





CHAPTER 


Lit, 


HAVING inserted in the two preceding verses a gracious prediction for the comfort of the 
few pious who might be living in the midst of the ungodly, the prophet proceeds to ex- 
patiate at greater length against the latter, directing his discourse especially to the civil 
and ecclesiastical officers, who, by their example, exerted so baneful an influence upon 
the nation. The chapter may be divided into three parts. Ver. 1-4, an objurgation of 
the princes; 5-7, that of the prophets; and 8-11, that of princes, prophets, and priests 
together. The chapter closes with a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the 
Babylonians. 





1 Anp I said: Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob! 
And ye judges of the house of Israel ! 
Is it not yours to know justice ? 
2 Who hate good and love evil; © 
Who strip their skin from off them, 
And their flesh from off their bones. 
3 Who devour the flesh of my people, 
And flay their skin from off them ; 
Who break their bones in pieces, 


1—3. The > in © is expressive of 
duty or obligation ; what the persons 
spoken of were bound to do, and what 
might naturally be expected from them 
in the station which they filled. >=» is 


here used, not of merely speculative 
knowledge, but of that which is prac- 
tical. It was the province of the mag- 
istrates to exercise their judicial author- 
ity for the protection of the innocent, 


. 








Ue 


Sn ee 


~~ 


DA A ENCE Rik Es 


sea ee 


Cuap. III. 


MICAH. 


233 


And separate them as in the pot, 
And as flesh in the midst of the kettle. 


4 Then they may cry to Jehovah, 


But he will not answer them, 


But will hide his face from them at that time ; 
Because they have corrupted their doings. 
5 Thus saith Jehovah respecting the prophets, 


Who cause my people to err ; 


Who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace ; 
But against him that putteth not into their mouth 


They prepare war. 


6 Surely ye shall have night without vision ; 
Ye shall have darkness without divination ; 
Yea, the sun shall'go down upon the prophets, 
And the day shall become black over them, 


and the punishment of evil-doers. But 
instead of thus discharging the duties of 
their office, they were themselves perpe- 
trators of the most flagrant acts of op- 
pression and cruelty. Their inhuman 
conduct is very forcibly described by the 
prophet, in language borrowed from the 
process of slaying and preparing animals 
for food, and the feasting consequent 
thereon. Comp. Ps. xiv. 4; Prov. xxx. 
14. The pronominal affixes in ver. 2, 
refer to the people, understood, and not 
to au and +34, immediately preceding, 
which are obviously employed as abstract 
neuters. Though many MSS. read 34 
with the Keri, yet there are others which 
exhibit 24, the proper pointing of the 
Chethib. No codex supports the emen- 
dation -~%5 instead of ngxa. The LXX. 
may, or may ns have so read. The 
etymology of mmbp is uncertain, but that 
it signifies a vessel for boiling in is clear 
from its being here parallel with -~», and 
in 1 Sam, ii, 14 with -i7D, “3 and 
"375. 

4, TN; then, and s°nn n33, at that 
time, are anticipative of the period of 
divine judgment. The infliction of such 
judgment is implied, not expressed. The 
more emphatically to convey an impres- 
sion of its certainty, the prophet takes it 
for granted, God is said to hear or an- 
swer prayer, when he grants what is sup- 


30 


plicated; and to hide his face, when he 
disregards or affords no relief to the sup- 
pliant. “vs2, with the LXX., Syr., 
Justi, Dathe, and others, I take to be 
causal, as in Num, xxvii. 14; 1 Sam. 
xxviii. 18; 2 Kings xvii. 26. 

5. Urrawa peagin, who bite with their 
teeth, the antithesis requires to be under- 
stood in the sense of eating the food 
supplied by the people. While such 
supplies were granted, the false prophets 
predicted prosperity ; but if they with- 
held them, measures of a hostile nature, 
under a religious pretext, were adopted 
against them. Thus the Targ. 5-37: 187 
nabs “iby Jane dat Ye pond, 
T: hey prophesy peace to him who feeds 
them with dinners of flesh. 'The phrase 
is purposely selected in order satirically 
to expose the selfishness of the deceivers. 
For the meaning of UIP to sanctify, as 
here used, see on Is. xiii. 3; Joel i. 14; 
and comp. Jer. vi. 4. 

6, 7. So completely should the pre- 
dictions of the false prophets be dis- 
proved by the judgments that were to be 
brought on the nation, and so painfully 
should they themselves experience these 
judgments, that they could no longer 
have the effrontery to practise their 
deceptions. Under such circumstances 
they could not pretend to deliver any 
divine oracle to the people. The words 


234 


MICAH. 


7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, HS 


And the diviners confounded ; 


They shall all cover their beard ; 
For there shall be no response from God. 
8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, 


And of judgment and might ; 


To declare unto Jacob his transgression, 


And to Israel his sin. 


9 Hear this, I beseech you, ye heads of the house of Jacob! 
And judges of the house of Israel! 


Who abhor justice, 
And pervert all equity ; 
10 Building Zion with blood, 


do not imply that they ever had really 
received any such oracles: they merely 
professed to have received them. ‘2 is 
here to be taken privatively, and not in 
the signification of 0b, propter, ete., as 
interpreted by some. The obscuration 
of the heavenly bodies, or of the light of 
day, is frequently employed by the proph- 
ets, as it is by oriental writers generally, 
to denote affliction or calamity. Amos 
vill. 9. rbe, LXX., in 2 Sam. xix. 25, 
pborag, the pinotathe or beard, which is 
held in high estimation in the East, and 
' in exhibiting which, properly grown 
and trimmed, the Orientals greatly pride 
themselves. To hide it, therefore, by 
covering it, was regarded as a striking 
mark of shame’ or sorrow. See Lev. 
xiii. 45; 2 Sam. xix. 25; Ezek. xxiv. 
17, 22. 

8. Full of conscious sincerity, and 
of his divine commission, in the execu- 
tion of which he was sustained by the 
supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit, 
and zealous for the glory of God, and 
the recovery of his people, Micah avows 
his readiness, with all boldness, to an- 
nounce to them his inspired message re- 
specting their sins. His character and 
conduct formed a perfect contrast to 
those of the false prophets. The com- 
pound particle ed:s1, and the pronoun 
"Dix, are here emphatic. rz, means the 
supernatural power necessary for the gen- 
eral discharge of the prophetic office ; 
comp. dvvauis, Luke i. 17, xxiv. 49; 


Acts i. 8; usr, @ sense of moral rec- 
titude, Hatingulching clearly between 
right and wrong, and impelling to the 
advocacy and maintenance of such ac- 
tions, as are conformable to the Divine 
law; and m123, moral courage, or a bold 
and intrepid spirit, inciting its possessor 
to throw aside all timidity in defending 
the cause of God and truth. Comp. 2 
Tim. i. 7. 

9, The prophet now proceeds to de- 
liver in full the message which he had 
commenced, ver. 1, employing the same 
formula, NII Y, as he also does chap. 
vi. 1. The remaining verses of the 
chapter furnish a noble specimen of that 
bold and uncompromising fidelity which 
characterized his ministry. 

10. 72.5, the LXX., Syr., Targ., and 
Vulg., render in the plural, but no He- 
brew codex exhibits the variation. The 
authors of these versions doubtless re- 
garded the participle as a collective, 
which mode of construction we must 
adopt, or, with Michaelis, we must sup- 
pose that the prophet had Shebna, Is, 
xxii. 16-18, Jehoiakim, or some other 
particular prince in his eye; the former 
interpretation is preferable. t%27, blood, 
used for the wealth obtained by shedding 
the blood of its owners. Comp. Jer. xxii 
13; Ezek. xxii. 27; Hab. ii, 12, in the 
latter of which passages D124 and nb13 
are used as parallels, with the same par- 
ticle, ; m2 5, 








ee 





A gees Ne Aer A el 





Cuap. III. 


MICAH. 


235 


And Jerusalem with wickedness. 


11 Her heads judge for reward, 


And her priests teach for hire ; 

Her prophets also divine for money ; 
Yet they lean upon Jehovah, saying : 
Is not Jehovah in the midst of us ? 
No calamity shall come upon us. 


12 Surely on your account 


Sion shall be ploughed as a field, 


11. sh, is a gift or bribe given to a 
judge to obtain freedom from punish- 
ment. Receiving bribes was strictly 
prohibited by the Mosaic law, Exod. 
xxiii, 8; Deut. xvi. 19. That the 
D°2m>, priests, were authorized by that 
law to act in the capacity of ordinary re- 
ligious teachers, does not appear. Their 
being thus employed by Jehoshaphat is 
narrated as something altogether extra- 
ordinary, 2 Chron. xvii. 7-9. Besides 
attending to the ceremonial observances, 
they had devolved upon them the de- 
cision of controversies, Deut. xvii. 8-11, 
xxi. 5; Ezek. xliv. 24, cases of leprosy, 
divorce, etc. Lev. x. 11. They were to 
lay down the law in such cases, and pro- 
nounce the final sentence. Comp. Mal. 
ii. 7; Deut. xxxiii. 10; and see Mi- 
chaelis on the Laws of Moses, Art. lii. 
They are here associated with the judges, 
because in certain cases they gave a 
joint verdict; and in the time of the 
prophet were equally avaricious and cor- 
ruptible. The verb Hop, to divine, be- 


oe 


‘ing only used of false prophets, shows 


that those reproved by Micah were of 
that description, Comp. Jude 1l. With 
all their wicked perversion of right, they 
hypocritically claimed an interest in the 
favor of God, and scouted the idea that 
the calamities denounced by his true 
prophets could ever overtake them. 
Comp. Jer. vii. 4, 8-11, where the same 
presumptuous confidence in the Divine 
presence in the temple, is exposed and 
condemned. 

12. We have here at last an awful 
epiphonema, in which the destruction of 
the metropolis is expressly and par- 
ticularly predicted. The wicked leaders 

» 


of the people were now building and 
beautifying it, by expending upon it 
their unrighteous gains, ver. 10; but 
the time was coming when it should be 
completely desolated. ‘ Zion” desig- 
nates the site of the city of David on 
the south; “Jerusalem,” the houses oc- 
cupied by the inhabitants generally in 
the centre and the north; and “the 
mountain of the house,’’ Moriah on the 
east. Instead of 4>"¥, the Chaldee ter- 
mination, five MSS., five others origin- 
ally, and the Babylonian Talmud, read 
py. mian, the house, i. e. kar’ etoxhy, 
the temple. ‘That which was their boast 
and confidence, was to be converted into 
a wilderness. “3° signifies not only a 
forest, but also a thicket of shrubs, a 
rough or rugged locality, from the Arab. 


y ” asper, salebrosus fuit ; difficilis 


incessu, asper locus. The whole verse 
contains a description of utter ruin and 
desolation. The enunciation of such a 
prophecy evinced the greatest intrepidity 
on the part of Micah, and is quoted as 
an instance of prophetic boldness, Jer. 
xxvi. 18,19. The ploughing of the city 
by the enemy, which has its parallel in 
Horace, lib, i. Od. 16, 


‘«‘ Imprimeretque muris 
Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens,” 


has by some interpreters been referred 
to what is recorded in the Talmud, 
noticed by Jerome, and repeated by 
Maimonides, that Titus Annius Rufus, 
an. officer in the Roman army, tore up 
with a ploughshare the foundations of 
the temple; but little or no credit is to 
be given to the story. See Deylingii 


236. 


Jerusalem shall become heaps, 


MICAH. 


Cuapr. IV. 


And the mountain of the house woody heights, 


Observationes Sacr. pt. v. pp. 448, 450. 
Robinson’s Palestine, vol. ii. pp. 2, 8. 
The circumstance, however, that what 
Micah predicts, relates to the city as 
distinguished from the temple, clearly 


to the present partially cultivated state 
of Mount Zion, since the destruction to 
which it points was not the more distant 
devastations under Titus and Adrian, 
but the more proximate under Nebu- 


militates against the application of his 
language. Equally inapposite as to the 
fulfilment of the prophecy are the appeals 


chadnezzar. For the accompiishment, 
see Neh, ii. 17, iv. 2; Lam. v. 18. 





CHAPTER IV. 


By a sudden transition, as at chap. ii. 18, the prophet passes from his denunciation of pun- 
ishment, to a description of the glorious state of the church subsequent to the restoration 
from the captivity in Babylon. He predicts the establishment of the kingdom of Christ 
upon the ruins of idolatry, and the accession of the Gentiles, 1,2; the peaceful nature of 
his reign, 3, and the security of his subjects,4. He then abruptly introduces his captive 
countrymen, who, having been recovered to the worship of the true God, declare, that, 
however the idolaters around them might adhere to their several systems of creature- 
worship, they would never renounce the service of Jehovah, 5. The Most High promises 
to gather even the weakest of them from their dispersions, restore their national exist- 
ence, and reign over them for ever, 6-8. The intermediate invasion of Judea, the cap- 
tivity in Babylon, and the liberation of the Jews, are next depicted, 9--11. Upon which 
follows a prediction of the victories which they should gain over their enemies in the 
time of the Maccabees,and of the reverse which took place on the establishment of Herod by 
the Roman power. > 





1 Anp it shall come to pass in the last of the days, 
That the mountain of Jehovah’s house 
Shall be established on the summit of the mountains, 
And be elevated above the hills, 
And the people shall flow to it. 

2 Yea, many nations shall go, and say: 
Come let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, 


of both prophets in parallel columns. 
The sense is the same throughout. 


1-8. On the general identity of this 
prophecy with Is. ii. 2-4, see the note 


on that passage, to which the reader is 
also referred for the interpretation. The 
verbal discrepancies, which are few and 
trivial, will be best seen on consulting 
Newcome, who exhibits the Hebrew text 


Twenty MSS., originally ten more, one 
by correction, and the ‘ag gt er edition, 
read 4*}x instead of s*tz. For axe xb, 
thirty-six MSS., probably another, seven 
originally, and six by correction, together 











Cuap. IV. 


MICAH. 


237 


To the house of the God of Jacob, 


That he may teach us his ways, 


And that we may walk in his paths; 
For out of Zion shall go forth the law, 
And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 
3 And he shall arbitrate among many people, 
And give decision to many distant nations, 
So that they shall beat their swords into coulters, , 
And their spears into pruning-knives ; 
Nation shall not raise a sword against nation, 
Neither shall they learn war any more. 
4 And they shall sit each under his vine, and under his fig-tree, 


And none shall make him afraid ; 


For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it. 
5 Though all the people should walk 


Each in the name of his god, 


Yet we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God, 


For ever and ever. 
6 In that day, saith Jehovah, 
I will gather the halting, 


with four of the early editions, read 854; 
and for :x'y> five MSS., four originally, 
and now one, read Nv. 

4. This beautiful ‘addition, which is 
not in Isaiah, appears to have been a 
common adage among the Hebrews to 
express a state of complete outward 
security. 1 Kings iv. 25; Zech. iii. 10. 
For a state of things precisely the re- 
verse see my Biblical Researches and 
Travels in Russia, etc. p. 436. 

5. Many interpreters have been puz- 
zled how to reconcile the statement 
made in the beginning of this verse with 
the prediction contained in verse 2; and 
Hartmann goes so far as to assert, that it 
was originally a marginal gloss, written 
by a different pen, and afterwards inserted 
in the text. The difficulty will be re- 
moved, if we consider the words to be 
those of the Jews during their dispersion. 
*‘ Hic spectanda est diversitas temporis.” 
Calvin, in loc. They witnessed the ea- 
gerness with which the idolaters around 
them devoted themselves to the service 
of their gods — an eagerness which led 
them to despair of their ever being 


reclaimed ; and they nobly resolved that 
nothing should ever again move them to 
abandon the service of Jehovah; but 
that, with equal earnestness, they would 
addict themselves to his worship, and 
the observance of his laws. %> is here a 
formula of concession: be 7 so that, 
although, or the like. Comp. for this 
use of the particle, Gen. viii. 21; Exod. 
xiii, 17; Josh. xvii. 18; Deut. xxix. 18. 

Bogs ‘ghn, to walk in the name of any 
one, means to frame one’s conduct accord- 
ing to his will, to act by his authority, and 
in accordance with his character. D3, 
name, is often used for the person him- 
self. Com. the phrases mim 972 557; 
nin? “UTS 2m, to soate 4 in yy way of, to 
follow Jehovah. It seems here to be 
specially employed in reference to relig- 
ious worship. Comp. Zech. x. 12. 

6-8. That the subject of these verses 
is the restoration from Babylon, and the 
reéstablishment of the Jewish state, and 
not any spiritual gathering of men gen- 
erally to the church of God, is placed 
beyond dispute by the prediction that the 
scattered and afflicted remnant of Israel 


238. 


And collect the outcasts, 


MICAH. 


Cuap. IV. 


And those whom I have afflicted. 

7 And I will make the halting a remnant. 
And those that had been far removed a strong nation ; 
And Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion, 


From henceforth, and for ever. 


8 And thou, O tower of the flock! 


O hill of the daughter of Zion! 


To thee it shall come, 


Even the former rule shall come, 
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem, 


was again to become a strong nation, 
ver. 7, and by the use of the phrase 
mwxin mdprrgn, the former rule, ver. 
8, “which can only be interpreted of the 
theocratic government at Jerusalem. 
When the Hebrews first returned to 
their own land, they were few in num- 
ber, amounting only to 42,360 ; but they 
rapidly increased, and in the time of the 
Maccabees not only became an inde- 
pendent state, but acquired such power 
that they vanquished the formidable 
Syro-Grecian armies. The Asmonzan 
family possessed supreme authority from 
Mattathias to Herod the Great. ‘To the 
above interpretation no valid objection 
can be taken on the ground that Jehovah 
is said, ver. 7, to reign for ever over 
those who were to be assembled. tip, 
eternity, or long indefinite duration, 
whether applied to the past or the future, 
must always be determined by the nature 
of the subject. It is very often used of 
the Mosaic institutes, Exod. xii. 14, 17, 
xxvii. 21, xxviii. 43; Lev. iii. 17. It is 
even employed to denote the period of the 
seventy years’ captivity, Jer. xviii. 16. For 
mydsn and sn-7n, comp. Ezek. xxxiv. 
16; Zeph. iii. 19. -xbman is the Niphal 
participle of xbn, to be removed. Syr. 


Vata, Arabic 
Um IL, recessit, abscessit. Having 


employed metaphors taken from the 
treatment of sheep, Micah calls the 
Jewish people, in their collective capa- 
city, "12, a flock. Comp. min® “7, the 
flock of Jehovah, Jer. xiii. 17; and in 


elongavit, removit. 


reference to the strength of Jerusalem, 
and the watchful care exercised by thé 
government, he characterizes her as 
sy daa, the tower of the flock. Some, 
indeed, think with J erome, that a place 
of this name, to which veferericn i is made 
Gen, xxxy. 21, and which that father 
says lay about a mile distant from Beth- 
lehem, is intended ; but, from its being 
in apposition with ji°s—na $23, mound 
of the daughter of Zion, a fortified hill or 
elevation on the eastern part of Mount 
Zion, and here put for the whole, such 
interpretation is inadmissible. For bey, 
comp. Is. xxxii, 14; 2 Chron. xxvii. 3, 
xxxiii. 14; Neh. iii. 26, 27, in which last 
passage ba5 ‘ari, the tower, is mentioned 
along with it, which is doubtless identi- 
cal with yn, Is. xxxii. 14. The word is 
derived from b¥, to swell, become tumid, 
Arab. as, tumore laboravit, pinguendo 
circa perineum capri, etc. Toy ’Opray 
Kadovuevoy ipnjaay. Joseph. de Bell. 
Jud. lib. vi. cap. 6, § 3. The LXX., 
Aquil. Symm., Syr., and Vulg., confound 
the word with b5k, thick darkness, The 
Targum applies the passage to the Mes- 
siah : yoo cyepa bye Ne AN 
xtTny 7 Vest RNg2D ‘ain esp 

sinee> Nn 151, “ And thou, O Messiak 
of Israel, who art hid on account of the 
sins of the congregation of Zion, to thee 
the kingdom will come ;” but there is no 
more foundation for this interpretation, 
than for that of Jonathan on 373~d22%, 
Gen. xxxy. 21: np yon? NIMS 
nrgih Hida Nw sabia sbans7, “ ‘the 


ee es 











' 


; 
‘ 
* 
: 
x 


4 


Cuap. IV. MICAH. 


9 Why, now, dost thou cry aloud ? 
Is there no king in thee ? 
Have thy counsellors perished ? 
That pains should have seized thee 
Like a woman in travail ? 

10 Be in pain, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion! 
Like a woman in travail ; ‘ 
For now thou shalt go forth from the city, 

And shalt dwell in the field, 
Thou shalt even go to Babylon ; 
There thou shalt be delivered, 
There Jehovah shall redeem thee, 
From the hand of thine enemies, 
11 And now many nations are gathered against thee, 


239 





NET IS a ae a a EN ee 


place from which King Messiah is to be 
revealed at the end of the days,’’ whatever 
use may be made of it in the way of argu- 
mentum an hominem in reasoning with 
the Jews. > in ma} is a periphrasis of 
the genitive. ; 

9. mms is not here used in its temporal 
signification, but merely as a particle 
designed emphatically to draw attention 
to what follows. Five MSS. and another 
originally, supported by the LXX. and 
Targ., read mmz7, which is the usual 
form. The prophet plunges at once into 
the circumstances of consternation in 
which the inhabitants of Jerusalem would 
be placed on the approach of the Chaldean 
army. ‘The questions relative to a king 
and his council are put ironically, and 
provoke the answer, “ Yes, we have, but 
they are nothing worth: they cannot 
protect us, nor contrive any means of 
escape.” ‘y9i> the LXX. treat as a col- 
lective: 7 BovAh cov. 

10. "mh, instead of “p43, for the sake 
of euphony. Comp. in reference to 
childbirth, Job xxxviii. 8; Ps. xxii. 10. 
Having employed the metaphor of a 
parturient female, the prophet carries it 
on in this verse, strikingly depicting the 
condition of anguish and distress which 
the Jews had to anticipate before they 
should enjoy deliverance. The Baby- 
lonish captivity, and its happy termina- 
tion, are predicted in express terms. Both 
were likewise expressly foretold by Isaiah, 


the contemporary of Micah, chap. xxxix. 
7, xliii. 14, xlviii. 20. The repetition of 
tw, there, is emphatic. The inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, when removed from the 
city, should be located in the open coun- 
try, till the whole were collected, and 
then they should all be conveyed to 
Babylon. 

11. The nations here referred to were 
those which composed the army of 
Nebuchadnezzar, or which joined that 
army in its attack upon Jerusalem. The 
more immediate neighbors of the Jews 
are no doubt specially intended. Comp. 
Lam. ii. 16; Ezek. xxxv.; Obad. 12, 13. 
These defiled Jerusalem when they shed 
the blood of her citizens and profaned 
her sacred places. 2534 is used, like 
2 misq, Obad. 12, in an emphatic sense, to 
denote the malignant delight with which 
the enemies of the Jews feasted on their 
calamities. For the use of the feminine 
singular tm with the dual masculine, 
comp. 2 Sam. x. 9; Jobxx.11. Nothing 
is more common in Arabic than to em- 
ploy the feminine form of the verb when 
the agent is anything irrational or in- 
animate. The singular number is em- 
ployed as the simpler form of the verb. 
It may be observed, however, that, in- 
stead of 43°39 in the plural, four MSS., 
two of the most ancient editions, the Syr. 
and Targ., read 45:°9 in the singular. 
The LXX. have the plural. Both F257 
and 311 are optative in force. 


o 


240 


a 


MICAH. 


Cnar. LV. 


That say: Let her be profaned ! 
And: Let our eyes look upon Zion. 
12 But, as for them, they know not the designs of Jehovah, 
Neither do they understand his purpose : 
For he shall collect them as sheaves into the threshing-floor, 
13 Arise! thresh, O daughter of Zion! 


For I will make thy horn iron, 


And thy hoofs copper, 


And thou shalt beat in pieces many nations ; 

Thou shalt devote their gains to Jehovah, 

And their substance to the Lord of all the earth. 
14 Assemble yourselves now, O daughter of troops! 


We are besieged ! 


12. m7 is a nominative absolute, used 
for the sake of emphasis. The enemies 
of the Jews had not the.most distant idea, 
that the object of Jehovah in permitting 
his people to be so treated was to recover 
. them from idolatry, and thus prepare 
them for a triumphant restoration. The 
metaphor taken from the process of 
threshing out grain is frequently used 
by the prophets to denote the complete 
destruction of a people. Comp. Jer. li. 
33. For the manner in which this 
process is carried on, see on Is, xxviii. 
27, 28. 

13. A continuation of the metaphor. 
Comp. for a real parallel, Is. xli. 15, 16. 
There is, however, a very natural instance 
of mixed metaphor, derived from the 
destructive power lodged in the horn of 
the ox, though it is not employed in 
threshing, which greatly adds to the force 
of the passage. That 447, horn, should 
here be employed to signify the horny 
substance forming the hoof of the ox, 
cannot be admitted. Comp. 1 Kings 
xxii. 11. The horn was a symbol of 
power exercised in subduing and pun- 
ishing enemies. The Orientals give to 


Alexander the Great the epithet of 3° 
-) AS Pe \, bicornis ; and the kings of 


Macedon were actually in the habit of 
wearing the horns of a ram in their 
casques. ~m7711" I take to be the sec- 
ond person feminine, the Yod being a 


fragment of the old form of the personal 
pronoun “mx, regularly preserved in the 
Syriac. Compare, for other instances, 
mcy, Ruth iii. 3; »ns$n, Jer. xxxi. 21, 
though they are peice with a Sheva, 
and the Keri directs that they should be 
read mrwand non. The LXX., Aquila, 
Symm., Theodot., “the Syr., and Vulg., 
all have the ocak person. 59h, Arab, 


eyr> prohibuit ; sacrum, quod non est 


promiscue usus ; to make sacred, devote, 
whether in a good or a bad sense. As 
conquerors used to consecrate a portion 
of their spoils to their deities by hanging 
them up in their temples, so the triumph- 
ant Hebrews would employ the riches 
which they acquired by their victories in 
beautifying the temple of Jehovah, and 
supporting his worship. ‘The Maccabean 
times are specially referred to. 

14. I consider sx, ¢roop, to be a col- 
lective. Jerusalem is called a daughter 
of troops, on account of the great body 
of military quartered within her walls, 
and in the surrounding districts. That 
it is Jerusalem, and not the enemy, that 
is addressed, the close coherence of the 
forms with those of the preceding context 
sufficiently shows, For the paronomasia 
in wa—N3 "17 4M, comp. Gen. xlix. 19. 
The common acceptation of 773, is to cut 
or make incisions ; but that it also’ signi- 
fics 10 assemble as troops, see Jer. v. 7. 


Syr. toy a portion or detachment of 














Cuar. V. 


MICAH. 


241 


With arod they have smitten on the cheek 


The judge of Israel ! 


an army. Though at pe the enemy is 
understood, it is better to construe it 
impersonally, and give it in our language 
in the passive. In vay and ue is 
another paronomasia. Most understand 
by the vEw, judge, Zedekiah, who was 
treated contumeliously by the Baby- 
lonians ; but it seems preferable to refer 
it to some of the chief rulers of the Jews 
at the time of the siege of Jerusalem 
described by the prophet; or the term 
may be used collectively. The position 
of Hengstenberg and some others, that 
it is selected on purpose to mark a period 
during which no king of the house of 


David reigned, might be allowed, were 
it not for the influence of the foregoing 
2%, with which it forms the parono- 
masia. Though the LXX. have rendered 
the term by gvAds, Aq., Symm., and 
Theod., have xpitqv. ‘The siege in ques- 
tion Michaelis thinks was that by Sosius, 
the Roman general, ns. c. 37, when An- 
tigonus, the last of the Asmonean dy- 
nasty, was obliged to submit to the su- 
perior power. Whether this prince be 
specifically intended I shall not determine, 
So much is certain, that he was most 
contemptuously treated by Sosius; see 
Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. xviii. 2. 





CHAPTER V. 


HAVING just adverted to the calamitous circumstances in which the Jews should be placed 
at the commencement of the reign of Herod, the prophet foretellsin a very explicit man- 
ner, the birth of the Messiah, which was to take place during the lifetime of that king, 1. 
A prediction is then introduced respecting the final dealings of God towards the nation 
previous to that illustrious event, 2, on which the permanent and universal nature of the 
new dispensation is announced, 8. The subject of the victories of the Jews over the 
Syro-Grecian armies is again taken up,4-8; and the chapter concludes with threaten- 
ings both against the Jews in the time of Micah, and the enemies by whom they were to 


be punished, 9-15. 





1 Anp thou, Bethlehem Ephratha ! 
Art small to be among the thousands of Judah, 


1. Michaelis remarks, “If not even a 
word was found in Matt. ii. 5, 6, ex- 
planatory of our text, I should believe 
the subject to be Christ, who was born 
in the reign of Herod. The whole 
thread of the prophecy in the preceding 
chapter leads me to him, and the time 
of his birth.” The Messianic application & 
of the prophecy was formally made by 
the Jewish Sanhedrim, in their official 
reply to Herod, Matt. ii. 5, 6; and is 

31 


admitted both by the Rabbinical and 
the rationalistic interpreters, though, as 
might be expected, they differ as to the 
person of the Messiah. The Targum has, 
22 sim%~d Nw PIB? “TE, 727 
sag PD oT trent: $2 jobs 

weby sain 5p bi, “From thee the 
Messiah shall come forth before me, to 
exercise dominion over Israel, whose name 
was announced long ago, from the days of 


242 


MICAH. 


Cuap. V. 


Yet from thee shall He come forth to me 


To be Ruler in Israel, 


old.” The position of Theodore of Mop- 
suesta, Grotius, Dathe, and some others, 
that Zerubbabel was intended, is now 
given up by all; and most interpreters 
of the German school find their notion 
of an ideal Messiah sufficiently con- 
venient in explaining this and other 
passages, as it relieves them from all in- 
vestigation in regard to positive histori- 
cal personality. tnd—na, Bethlehem, 
literally, the House of Bread, Arab. 


AAs, Beit Lahm, the House of 


Flesh. It was asmall town in the tribe 
of Judah, built on the slope of a ridge, 
about six Roman miles to the west by 
south of Jerusalem, and originally cele- 
brated as the birth-place of David, the 
first of the line of Jewish kings. nz BN. 
Ephrath, Gen. xlviii. 7, or, as it is com- 
monly written, with the m paragogic, 
moss, Ephratha, appears from the pas- 
sage just cited to have been the original 
name of the place. The word has much 
the same signification as Beth-lehem, 
being derived from 48, to be fruitful ; 
and no doubt the place received both 
names from the fertility of the region. 
Dr. Robinson observes respecting the 
present aspects of the town: “The 
many olive and fig orchards, and vine- 
yards round about are marks of industry 
and thrift; and the adjacent fields, 
though stony and rough, produce never- 
theless good crops of grain.” Biblical 
Researches in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 161. 
The names occur as parables in the 
stanzas, Ruth iv, 11:— 


mn es binmnies? 
: rnb m3 pe—N IE: 


Jt was likewise called Bethlehem Judah, 
Judges xvii. 7, xix.1; Ruthi.1; Matt. 
ii. 5, in order, it is thought, to distinguish 
it from another place of the same name 
in the tribe of Zabulon, Josh. xix. 15. 
“ps, as well as mms, is of the masculine 
gender, contrary to rule in Hebrew, but 
in accordance with Arabic usage, in in 

which the names of cities are sometimes 


put in the masculine. In the present 
instance, however, the change was doubt- 
less occasioned by m2, which is of that 
gender, being strongly prominent to the 
view of the prophet. Pococke, in the 
notes to his Porta Mosis, chap. ii., and in 
his commentary on the passage, labors 
hard to support the opinion of Tanchum 
and Abulwalid, that =*yx has the two 
contrary significations of little and great ; 

but the opinion rests upon nothing be- 
yond the construction which these writ- 
ers have put upon the term as occur- 
ring in Jer. xlviii. 4, and Zech. xiii. 7, 
which passages, when closely examined, 
admit of no other signification being 
attached to the word but that of Jittle, 
of small note, or esteem, though it may 
seem to besupported by the 'l'argumic rer- 
dering 47721052 in the former of these 
passages, and by momévas the reading of 
the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX., and 


SSS, that of the Syriac, in the latter. 


In none of the cognate dialects has the 
word the signification of greatness or 
dignity. nirnd ~nyx is literally little 
én respect of being, little to exist, or be 
reckoned. ‘There is no occasion to resort 
to the hypothesis that > here forms a 
comparative, and is equivalent to 43 
What the prophet asserts is, that Beth- 
lehem was positively little in point of 
size or population, to rank with the other 
subdivisions of the tribe of Judah. 
Comp. 1 Sam. xxiii, 23. The tribes 
were subdivided into mint, families, 
or clans, the chiliads or thousands of 
which had heads or princes, to whom, 
from this circumstance, was given the 
name of crEbs ony, Dre SS WN, Princes 
and heads of thousands. It is highly 
probable that at the time to which the 
prophecy refers, if not in that of the pro- 
phet, the place might not have been able 
to muster a thousand men. No mention 
is made of it among the cities of Judah 
enumerated Josh. xv., though, with many 
others, it is found in the text of the LXX. 
Nor does it occur in the list, Neh, xi, 26, 





ae 
Fa ian 


Cuap. V. 


MICAH. 


243 


Whose comings forth have been of old, 


From the ancient days. 


etc. It is spoken of in the New Testa- 
ment as Kéun, « village, or hamlet, John 
vii. 42. In the present day its inhabit- 
ants are rated at eight hundred taxable 
men. See Dr. Robinson, ut sup. Yet, 
small and inconsiderable as Bethlehem 
was, it was to have the distinguished 
honor of giving birth to the Messiah, 


«QO sola magnarum urbium 
Major Bethlem, cui contigit 
Ducem salutis ccelitus 
Incorporatum gignere.”’ 
Prudentius, Hymn. Epiph. 77. 


Between the former and the latter 
half of the verse is a marked antithesis. 
In this respect, 8x3 and 1M 831%, corres- 
pond; the former, designating the future 
coming forth of the Illustrious Ruler 
here predicted, when he should actu- 
ally assume human nature; the latter, his 
ancient comings forth, when he created 
the world, and appeared to Moses and 
the patriarchs, and revealed to them the 
Divine will, The idea conveyed by the 
noun must be identical with that ex- 
pressed by the verb, Abenezra, Abar- 
banel, Grotius, Hartmann, Rosenmiiller, 
Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, 
give origines as the signification of 
miss, and regard the term as refer- 
ring to the Davidic extraction of the Mes- 
siah. This signification is likewise stren- 
uously maintained by Hengstenberg ; but, 
instead of finding any reference to the 
ancient family of David, he adopts the 
opinion that the object of the prophet is 
to teach the eternal existence of the Mes- 
siah. His position, however, is perfectly 
untenable, since nothing can be more in- 
congruous than the ascription of locality 
to eternity, which he expressly does in 
the translation, “his goings forth (in the 
sense of places of going forth), are the 
ancient times, the days of eternity, 7. e. 
the very ancient times.” None of the 
passages which he alleges proves the 
local signification ; they all describe the 
act, not the place or time of egress, 
472 before op and in od4y “ann, is used 
in its temporal acceptation, marking the 


The LXX. %od0: abrod 
Byrine 


terminus @ quo. 
am apxis ée& tuepay aidvos. 


< owes, <P omatso 


[So GS ; pee, ‘‘Whose going forth 


is from the beginning, from the days of 
the ages.” Vulg. “Et egressus ejus ab in- 
itio, a diebus eternitatis.’” The Arab. 
though unwarrantably free as a ver- 
is gives pretty much the true sense: 


pow { I, s Whose goings ae in 


Israel are from the days of the age.’ It 
is, however, not unlikely, that the words 


we a Ss have crept into the text 


from the preceding, clause. Though 
tap is used of past duration absolutely 
in reference to God, Deut. xxxiii. 27, 
yet it is most frequently employed to de- 
note past, especially ancient time, and is 
synonymous with ¢>+», with which it 
occurs in poetic parallelisms. Comp. the 
Arab. prs , precessit; tempus anti- 


quum. Syr. So ro? ante, coram, In 


Ps, xliv. 2, O7p 2° occurs, just as 
tdiy “o> does in ‘tie present verse ; and 
in Ps. Ixxvii. 6 we have tap B72 and 
pysbiy nis corresponding to each 
other. Comp. also Micah vii. 14, 20; 

Mal. iii. 4. That the dogma of eternal 
generation or emanation is taught by 
our prophet, does not appear; but the 
actual preéxistence of our Saviour, and 
his active comings forth, in the most an- 
cient times, for the accomplishment of 
the Divine purposes, he not obscurely 
teaches. Thus Piscator: ‘ Verto egres- 
siones, nempe egressiones a Deo Patre 
ad sanctos Patres Adamum, Noachum, 
Abrahamum, Isaacum, Jacobum, quibus 
apparuit seseque familiari sermone pate- 
fecit.”” For the interpretation of Calvin, 
that the eternal decree respecting the 
future birth of: the Messiah is intended, 
there is no foundation whatever. The 


244 


MICAH. 


Cuap. V. 


2 Nevertheless he will give them up 
Till the time when she who is to bear hath brought forth, 


And the rest of his brethren 


Shall return to the sons of. Israel. 


term $311, Ruler, here employed, is that 
used by David in his Messianic Ode, 2 
Sam, xxiii. 3:— 
PASE Iw. bye” 
» Denby mei Syn 
Comp. Jer. xxx. 21 :— 
ape IATA HITS 
SS sbowas 
“by 0327 PAINE? 
jad me 207 nITNan 2 °D 
tmimy ee wey Nye 


Comp. also Is. xi. 1-4. =, fo me, is not 
without emphasis. The Messiah was to 
come for the express purpose of carrying 
into effect the will of his Father in the 
salvation of men; and though Israel is 
specially mentioned as the sphere of his 
rule, it is not to the exclusion of the 
_ Gentile world, as ver. 3, and numerous 

passages in other prophets clearly show. 

For the verbal discrepancies between 
the Hebrew text of Micah, and the quo- 
tation Matt. ii. 6, the reader is referred 
to the commentators on the latter pas- 
sage. It may suffice to remark here, 
that the Hebrew words cannot with any 
propriety be rendered interrogatively, as 
some have proposed, and that the quo- 
tation in question, made by the Sanhe- 
prim, and not by the evangelist, is ob- 
viously given from memory, and not 
with any view to verbal accuracy. 

2. Notwithstanding the glorious pros- 
pect afforded by the promise of the 
Messiah, it was not to supersede the 
state of suffering to which the nation 
was to be previously reduced on account 
of its sins. Into that state it was to be 
brought by the Chaldeans, and was not 
to be fully restored till about the time 
of his birth. The return from Babylon 
was only partial at first ; but, encouraged 
by the prosperity which attended the re- 
establishment of the theocracy, others who 
resided in the East were induced to fol- 


\ 


low, and multitudes returned from Egypt 
and other parts, before the Christian era. 
The words 775» 7755 are susceptible of 
two interpretations. They may either 
be referred to the Jewish church, and 
regarded as descriptive of her deliver- 
ance from suffering, set forth under the 
metaphor of a travailing woman; or, 
they strictly and literally apply to the 
mother of the Messiah. ‘The former 
interpretation is adopted by Lipman, 
Munster, Vatablus, Grotius, Drusius, 
Dathe, Justi, and others; the latter by 
the greater number of expositors— among 
other moderns, by Secker, Michaelis, 
Hartmann, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Maurer, 
and Ewald. ‘This construction of the 
passage alone suits the entire connection. 
It would appear altogether incongruous 
to introduce a tropical designation of the 
church, in a verse in which the Jewish 
people are more than once spoken of in 
language strictly literal. The birth of 
the Messiah, in so far as regards its 
place, and the preéxistence of his per- 
son, had been predicted ver. 1: the 
prophet, who, as already noticed, was 
contemporary with Isaiah, and in all 
probability was acquainted with his cele- 
brated prophecy respecting the mts, 
Is. vii. 14, now further adverts to the 
interesting fact by a somewhat indefi- 
nite, but by no means obscure refer- 
ence to his virgin mother. This view 
is further confirmed by the use of the 
pronominal affix in mx, which un- 
questionably belongs to the Messiah, the 
immediate antecedent, and not, as a 
collective, to Israel, as given in the 
LXX. and Targ. By his “brethren” 
cannot be meant the Gentile believers, 
which some interpreters have alleged, 
referring in proof to Ps. xxii. 22; Heb. 
ii. 11; but his brethren according to 
the flesh, those who still remained in 
foreign parts, but who were to be brought 
back to Judea, in order that they might 











Cuap. V. 


MICAH. 


245 


8 And He shall stand, and feed in the strength of Jehovah, 
In the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God. 


And they shall continue ; 


For now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth. 
4 And This Same shall be the peace. 
When the Assyrian shall invade our land, 


And tread our palaces, 


We will raise against him seven shepherds, 


And eight anointed men. 


5 And they shall afflict the land of Assyria with the sword, 
And the land of Nimrod at the entrances thereof: 


be there to receive him, when he should 
come forth to beruler in Israel. The 
preposition $y conveys here the idea of 
superaddition. The foreign Jews were 
to be gathered in addition to those who 
had already been collected. It is thus 
more expressive than ty, That the 
phrase $392 °23, the children of Israel, 
is not here to be taken in its distinctive 
application to the ten tribes, but denotes 
the descendants of Jacob generally, may 
be inferred from the fact, that it is thus 
appropriated after the Babylonish cap- 
tivity, the period to which the prophecy 
refers. It is well known that the Mac- 
cabeean coins bear the inscription, $pw 
Ly nw, the Shekel of Israel. Comp. for 
this use the term bsny ~, ver. 1 of the 
present chapter. 

3. The verb "x2 signifies not simply 
to stand, but also to stand firm, to endure, 
continue. ‘Lhis latter acceptation is ad- 
opted here by many, who think it bet- 
ter suits the character of the predicted 
king, who is otherwise represented as sit- 
ting upon his throne, and not standing. 
But, as the following verb m24, signifies 
to feed a flock, there is the greatest 
propriety in presenting him to view in 
the attitude of the good shepherd, who 
stands, that he may survey the whole of 
his sheep, and be in readiness to defend 
them against all attacks. Comp. Is. xi. 
5. The pastoral metaphor is beautifully 
expressive of royal care and protection. 
Comp. Lliad i, 263 : 


Ofoy TlewpiSodvy re, Apiaytd Te, Toméva 
Aa@Vs 


where the scholiast has, BaciAda dxAwv. 
See for this use of the Hebrew verb msn, 
2 Sam. vy. 2, vii. 7. ‘The power and glory 
of the Messiah here predicted are those 
with which, as Mediator, he is invested. 
Comp. Is. xi. 2; Matt. xxviii. 19; Heb. 
ii. 7-9. Jehovah being called “his 
God,” intimates his subordinate official 
relation. Comp. John xx. 17. If ra 
mim, the name of Jehovah, be not here 
a periphrasis for Jehovah himself, it may 
be regarded as descriptive of his attri- 
butes, or the character in which he hath 
revealed himself to mankind. ‘The nom- 
inative to s2%71 must be the subjects 
over whom Messiah reigns, understood. 
These were to consist not of believing 
Jews only, but likewise of believing Gen- 
tiles in the remotest regions of the globe, 
as it follows in the verse. Comp. a 
TIS "CES, the ends of the earth,” 
reference to the amplitude of the ia 
dom of Christ, Ps. ii. 8, xxii. 28, xxii. 8. 
The verb conveys the idea of security 
and permanence. Such was to be the 
character of the new dispensation. It 
remains to add on this verse, that instead 
of men, to feed, two MSS. and some 
printed editions read ms, fo see, while 
the LXX. and Arab. exhibit both read- 
ings; and that three MSS. and another 
originally, the Syr., Targ., and Vulg., 
read 3575 or 42", they shall return, 
or be converted, instead of the current 
reading :2¥74, they shall remain. ‘The 
LXX. "tive bardptovat. 

4, 5. The words nity ny my 3)» And 
This Same shall be the peace, “are inti- 


246 


MICAH. 


Cuap. V- 


And there shall be deliverance from the Assyrian, 


When he shall invade our land, 


And when he shall tread our borders. 


mately connected with the preceding 
words, but have no relation to those 
which follow, except in so far as the 
victories there assumed were to pave the 
way for that state of the Jewish affairs 
during which the Messiah was to appear 
in the world. x1, This, This Same, is 
used emphatically, with reference to the 
Messiah, who had just been spoken of. 
Comp. for a similar use of the pronoun, 
Gen. v. 29; Exod. xv. 2. pits, peace, 
is put, by metonymy, for the author and 
introducer of reconciliation. Comp. Gen, 
xlix. 10; Is, ix. 5; Zech. ix. 10; Eph, 
ii, 14, 17; Col. i. 20. 5, signifies to 
restore things to their former state, to 
make restitution ; in Hiph. to restore, OY 
cause to be at peace. Comp. the Arab. 


The sub- 


stantive is without the article, as fre- 
quently in the prophetic writings, when 
the object is to impart energy to the lan- 
guage, by condensing the mode of ex- 
pression. If sywsx be taken to signify 
the ancient Assyrian empire, the refer- 
ence will be to the threatened invasion 
in the time of the prophet; but this 
construction ill suits the connection, in 
which respect is had to the more distant 
future ; and what follows, relative to the 
resistance of the Jews, does not agree 
with any successful events in the history 
of that people during the Assyrian rule. 
I cannot, therefore, but think, that the 
term is employed by our prophet to 
denote the empire of the Seleucide, 
founded by Seleucus, one of the generals 
of Alexander the Great, by whom he 
‘was invested with the government of 
Babylonia and Media, and who, under 
the title of King of Syria, subjugated 
all the countries from the Hellespont 
to India and the Jaxartes. On the 
same principle that Darius is called 
eas 02, the king of Assyria, Ezra vi. 
22, though that empire had long ceased 
to exist, the title might be applied to 
Seleucus and his successors. ‘To them, 


» redintegrare, sanare. 


. 


during the period of their reign, belonged 
*“‘ the land of Assyria,”’ which is also here 
called **the land of Nimrod,” because, 
according to the proper rendering of 
Gen. x. 11, that monarch went forth 
from Babylon into the country of Assy- 
ria, where he built Nineveh and other 
cities there named. According to this 
interpretation, the prophecy in these two 
verses relates to the noble and suc- 
cessful opposition which the Maccabees 
offered to Antiochus Epiphanes, when 
he marched against Jerusalem, pillaged 
the temple, and desecrated every object 
sacred in the estimation of the Jews. 
By rousing a spirit of patriotic piety in 
the breasts of their countrymen, they 
not only recovered their sacred city from 
the enemy, but, after a series of the 
most brilliant victories, drove him to the 
gates of his own fortified cities, and fin- 
ally succeeded in securing the national 
independence. It is to this protracted, 
but triumphant struggle, the reference 
is made, Dan. xi. 32. The assertion of 
Hartmann, that xar—> “avy is not 
Hebrew in its construction, and that, 
consequently, sas is to be connected 
with titd, is without foundation; for 
we meet with the very same construc- 
tion in xdf2°> mvs ix des, Numb. vi. 


2. Thus also in Arab. Epa duo 
daly cl cle Ipiast 15! 


Lieks| , “two cities when their inhabit- 


ants are of one accord,” Locman, Fable 
I, The numbers seven and eight appear 
to be used to denote indefinitely a full 
and sufficient number, as in Eccles, xi. 
2. Give a portion to seven, and also 
to eight. Comp. also Job v. 18; Prov. 
vi. 16, xxx. 15, 18, 21; Amos i. 8, 6, 
9, ete. So the Greek rpls kal rerpdiis, 
and the Latin ¢er guaterque. Were they 
to be taken literally, there would be no 
great difficulty in selecting the number 
from the Maccabeean period ; but the com- 





Cuar. V. 


MICAH. 


247 


6 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, 


Like the dew from Jehovah ; 
Like the small rain upon herbs, 
Which waiteth not for man, 


And tarrieth not for the sons of man. 
7 Yea, the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, 


In the midst of many people, 


Like a lion among the beasts of the forest, 
Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, 
Which, if he pass through, treadeth down and rendeth, 


And there is none to deliver. 


8 Thy hand shall be high against thine adversaries, 


parison of the above passages shows that 
such a process would be unwarranted. 
ney 4, shepherds, and £48 "2702, princely 


" men, are synonymous, signifying those 


who took the lead in opposing the 
enemy, and who administered the affairs 
of the Jews at the time. Because 7O3 
also signifies to pour out a libation, 
Michaelis is inclined to render the phrase 
Bas "D°O2, sacrifices of meng and to 
interpret it of such as sacrificed their 
life in defence of their country. Not 
only, however, is the parallelism opposed 
to this construction of the meaning, but 
also the use of °>"o3 in other passages. 
Thus Josh. xiii. 21, yim™D *5°d3, princes 
(Comp. Ver. dukes) of Sihon ; and Ezek. 
Xxxii. 30, ViBx "5°D2 mad, there are the 
princes of the north. ‘The title properly 
signifies anointed, those who had been 
consecrated to their office by anointing 
with oil; and thus is equivalent to 
t's. In the present instance it is 
used tropically, without any reference to: 


the ceremony. Syr. Latls : S55, 


Targ. No28 "23925 Arab. ue Lbs 
yet, great men. 2%, to feel, being 
here used in connection with “ the 
sword,” must be taken metaphorically, 
and means to consume, devastate, or the 
like. To refer 494 to 324 as its root, is 
altogether inadmissible. The repetition 
in these two verses possesses peculiar 
elegance. xn is used impersonally. 


Instead of 5:41:23 in the singular, :»"baa 
in the plural, is the reading of thirty- 
four MSS., originally four more; the 
Soncin., Brixian, and Complut. editions ; 
the Soncin. Prophets, and all the ancient 
versions, 

6, 7. The former of these verses depicts 
the beneficial influence which the re- 
mainder of the nation, after its restora- 
tion, should exert, by spreading the 
knowledge of the true God among the 
nations in the midst of which they were 
situated; their signal victories against 
such formidable armies, attracting atten- 
tion to Him whom they worshipped, and 
to whom they ascribed their success. 
During the existence of the new Jewish 
state, the members of the theocracy had 
much intercourse with foreigners, multi- 
tudes of whom became proselytes to the 
faith of Jehovah, and were thus prepared 
to receive the gospel, when preached by 
the apostles. The idea of number lies 
both in $v, the dew, and peasan, the 
rain; and the sudden raising up of the 
Jews was to be as entirely a work of Di- 
vine providence, and independent of 
human aid, as the production of the ma- 
terial elements. The seventh verse des- 
ceribes the formidable character of the 
Jews in reference to the hostile nations 
by which they were attacked. For the 
accumulation and the rise in the mean- 
ing of the verbs 5401 f7391 "22, comp. 
Exod. xv. 9:39 pbs ows Oa4N 

8. Here the prosperous aspect of the 
prophecy closes. The words are ad- 


- 


248 


MICAH. 


Cuap. V. 


And all thine enemies shall be cut off. 

9 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, 
That I will cut off thy horses from the midst of thee ; 
And I will destroy thy chariots. 

10 I will cut off the cities of thy land, 


And raze all thy fortresses, 


11 I will cut off the sorceries from thy hand, 
And thou shalt have no diviners. 
12 I will cut off thy graven images and thy statues from the midst 


of thee, 


And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands, _ 
13 I will break down thine images of Astarte from the midst of 


thee, 
And destroy thy cities. 


dressed optatively to Jehovah, and may 
be considered as those either of the 
prophet, or as designed to be adopted by 
the Jewish church. Comp. Is. xxvi. 
11. Her enemies were the enemies of 
Jehovah. 

9-14. The prophet now returns to 
times nearer his own, and predicts the 
beneficial moral changes that were to 
be effected in the condition of his coun- 
trymen by the Babylonish conquest and 
captivity. They had, contrary to the 
express command of the Lord, Deut. 
xvii. 16, kept up a formidable body of 
cavalry, and war-chariots; trusted in 
their fortified cities ; encouraged sorcery, 
and indulged in abominable idolatry. 
These were all to be removed, when the 
Jewish state was broken up; and after 
God had employed the heathen in pun- 
ishing his apostate people, they in their 
turn should be punished for their obsti- 
nate adherence to idol worship, notwith- 
standing the testimony borne against 
their conduct by the Jews who lived 
among them. This portion of the chapter 
is strikingly parallel with Is, xlvii. 6-22. 
For p52, see on Is, xlvii. 9; for D=22 43%, 
comp. 6"233, Is. iii. 6; and for oy, 
see on Is, xvii. 8. As D>» had already 
occurred in the acceptation of cities, 
ver. 10, we should scarcely expect it to 
be again used ver. 13. To remove the 
difficulty Michaelis compares the word 


with the Arab. ¥§ aa arbor semper 
virens ; Arnold, with the Arab. ys 


speluncus ; others propose to read bons", 
woods, i. e. groves, supposing the initial 
Yod to have been absorbed by that with 
which the preceding word terminates ; 
while others would change the word into 
Do-y, witnesses, understanding thereby 
the statues etc., belonging to idol-wor- 
ship. There seems, however, to be no 
absolute necessity for departing from the 
signification ctties, only we thereby un- 
derstand such as were specially appro- 
priated to idolatrous uses, as Jerome 
suggests. Comp. $y25 m°3 “5, the city 
of the house, or temple of Baal, 2 Kings 
x. 25, by which is meant a separate part — 
of Samaria, where the temple was situ- 
ated. This construction is required in 
order to form a parallelism with O-->yx, 
images of Astarte, occurring immediately 
before in the verse. In all the ancient 
versions the word is rendered by cities, 
except the Targum, in which it is trans- 
lated enemies. Some refer the relative 
“vs at the end of ver. 14 to Df:, and in- 
terpret, unheard of vengeance, but it is 
more natural to connect it with rx4a, 
nations, the immediate antecedent, and 
to regard the prophet as describing the 
refusal of the pagans, who had enjoyed 
opportunities of learning the true religion 


Cuar. VI. 


MICAH. 


249 


14 And I will execute vengeance in anger and in wrath, 
Upon the nations which have not been obedient. 


from the Jews, to listen to the instruc- 
tions which had been tendered to them. 
Thus the Targ. jEba8 soap Nba N77 
non, “the peoples that have not re- 
ceived the doctrine of the law.” LXX. 
év tots @vecw, av’ Gv ovk eiohkovoay. 


ws : ——* ’ 
the peoples who have not hearkened, In 


the same way Michaelis, Hartmann, Justi, 
Dathe, Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald. 





CHAPTER VI. 


Ir was not sufficient for the prophet to predict the punishments that were to be inflicted on 
the Jews; he was required to press the subject upon their attention, which he does in a 
very affecting manner, by calling a public court, in which the inanimate creation is sum- 
moned to supply evidence, 1,2. An appeal is then made by Jehovah to the accused party, 
respecting his kindness to the nation from the earliest period of its history, 8-5. Con- 
victed of guilt, the people are represented as deeply anxious to obtain, at any cost, recon- 
ciliation with God, 6,7; and are pointed by the prophet to the only source whence it was 
to be obtained; while, at the same time, they are reminded of the high properties and ob- 
ligations of true piety, 8. He next demands attention to the threatened judgments, 9; 
specifies some of the crimes on account of which they were to be brought upon them, 
10-12; repeats the threatening, 13; shows the blasting effects of the Divine wrath upon all 
their undertakings, 14, 15; and traces the evil to its true souree—the idolatries of the 





kingdom of Israel, 16. 





1 Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: 
Arise! plead in the presence of the mountains, 
And let the hills hear thy voice. 

2 Hear, O ye mountains! Jehovah’s controversy, 
And ye rocks, the foundations of the earth ; 


1, 2. It is not unusual with the pro- 
phets to make appeals respecting the en- 
ormity of human guilt to the inanimate 
parts of creation, as if it were impossible 
for it not to inspire them with life, and 
call them forth as intelligent witnesses of 
what hath taken place in their presence. 
See Deut. xxxii. 1; Is. i. 2; Jer. ii. 12, 13. 
By a similar personification the moun- 
tains and durable foundations of the earth 
are here summoned to appear in the 
court of heaven. Jehovah, however, 
instead of bringing forward the charge, 


32 


abdicates, as it were, his right, and Icaves 
it to the guilty party to state the case. 
Comp. Is. xliii. 26. In the appeal to 
the lofty and ever-during mountains, in 
which the puny affairs of man could 
excite no prejudice, and which might 
therefore be regarded as quite impartial 
judges, there is something inexpressibly 
sublime. nn ms 2°, does not mean, 
contend with the mountains, as if they 
were the party to be accused, but to 
carry on the cause in their presence, 
mx is here to be taken in the signification 


250 


MICAH. 


Cuap. VI. 


For Jehovah hath a controversy with his people, 


And will contend with Israel. 


8 O my people! What have I done to thee? 
With what have I wearied thee? 


Testify against me. 


4 Nay, I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, 
And redeemed thee from the house of slaves ; 
And sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam. 
5 O my people! remember now how Balak the king of Moab con- 


sulted, 


And how Balaam the son of Beor answered him ; 


[Remember what happened] 
From Shittim to Gilgal, 


That ye may know the benefits of Jehovah. 


of apud, coram, and is equivalent to 
s2£5, before, just as the forms sec 
snby—ns, Gen, v. 24, and 5in 

by "25%, xlviii. 15, are identical. in 
meaning. pans, or as it is spelt D»2n7s 
in a great many MSS., and in four early 
editions, standing absolutely, must be 
taken as a substantive, and not as an ad- 
jective qualifying yoy 77>". Arab. 


tt, petra. 


up, stetit, consistit ; 
upl » est omne id, quod yi et per- 


manet sua in sede. Schultens, Origg. 
Hebbr. p. 112. Instead of vax "194%, 
the foundations of the ear th, ‘the Arabs 


call the mountains L,I ob, 


the stakes, or posts of the earth. 

3, 4. The Israelites are asked, in the 
kindest and most affecting style, what 
ground of complaint they had against 
Jehovah, which could have induced them 
to act the part they did. Comp. Jer. 
ii. 5, 31. He had demanded of them 
nothing that was unreasonable. “5 at 
the beginning of ver. 4, is very expres- 
sive, and is equivalent to nay, on the 
contrary, or the like. Instead of having 
done anything to alienate them, God had 
shown the utmost kindness to them from 
the beginning; not only rescuing them 
from Egyptian bondage, but providing 
them with inspired leaders. Miriam is 
mentioned, on account of the prominent 


part she took in celebrating the Divine 
interposition for their deliverance. She 
is called mrx*a2m, the prophetess, Exod. 
xv. 20, because she led the female chorus 
which rehearsed the inspired song of 
Moses, The Targ. on Micah adds: 
srs mets, to instruct the women. 
Comp. Numb. xi. 2 

5. The kindness of Jehovah to his 
people was manifested, not only in 
furnishing them with inspired teachers, 
but also in counteracting the designs of 
Balak, who wished to engage the pro- 
phetic influence of Balaam against them ; 
for that avaricious prophet was compelled, 
contrary to the cherished desire of his 
heart, to pronounce blessings upon them 
instead of curses. See Numb. xxii. 
xxiii, xxiv. The words =¥ t°Oun 72 
babs, from Shittim to Gilgal, are not 
to be constructed with those immediately 
preceding ; for Balaam did not cross 
over Jordan to Gilgal, but was slain in 
the Jand of Midian, as we read Numb. 
xxxi. 8. Nor are we, with Ewald, to 
suppose them to be a marginal gloss; 
but have merely to supply the ellipsis 
mim ma, what happened, and repeat ->1, 
remember, from the first clause of the 
verse, To this effect the Targ. jx:23 sq 
ma 72 yo sp 4°55 NTRENN 
bata, “ Were not mighty deeds per= 
formed for you from the plain of Shittim 
to the house Gilgal?’”’ ‘Thus also Mun- 


Lees 
os 


Cuap. VI. 


MICAH. 


251 


6 With what shall I come before Jehovah ? 
With what shall I bow to the high God ? 
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings ? 


With calves of a year old ? 


7 Will Jehovah be satisfied with thousands of rams ? 
With ten thousand rivers of oil ? 
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression ? 
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? 


ster, Vetablus, Grotius, Calvin, Dathe, De 
Wette, Michaelis, Hartmann, and others, 
‘There was a peculiar propriety in specify- 
ing these two places. Shittim was the 
name of a valley in the country of Moab, 
where on account of the impurities com- 
mitted with the Midianitish women, 
twenty-four thousand Israelites were de- 
stroyed. The evil was so great that it 
might have caused the Lord to abandon 
them entirely ; but he mercifully spared 
them as a people, miraculously divided 
the Jordan to afford them a passage, 
and gave them actual possession of 
Canaan, the land promised to their 
fathers. In proof of this last act of the 
Divine goodness, Gilga/ is singled out 
from other places, because it was there 
they made their first encampment in the 


promised land. It was situated between 


Jericho and the Jordan, but no trace 
of its site now remains. min? m*pts, the 
benefits of Jehovah, Comp. Yad. v.11; 

1 Sam. xii. 7; Ps. xxiv. 7. In this way 


_ the phrase is interpreted by Tanchum, 


Grotius, Drusius, and by most of the 
moderns. Calvin observes: “Per Jus- 
titias intelligit beneficia quemadmodum 
multis aliis locis ; and paraphrases thus: 
“Ut ipsa experientia tibi demonstret 
quam verax, quam beneficus, quam mi- 
sericors semper fuerit Deus erga genus 
vestrum.” 

6, 7. The Jews convicted of guilt, 
are represented as most anxious to pro- 
pitiate the Divine favor. They could 
not deny the charges that had been 
brought against them; nor could they 
put in any plea of justification. They 
stood condemned before God and the 
universe. The language which they 
employ is not such as the prophet would 
have taught them, but such as well 


accorded with the notions which were 
prevalent among them, some of which 
had been learned from their heathen 
neighbors. How much soever they might 
formerly have grudged the expense of 
prescribed offerings, they are now will- 
ing to bring the most costly and abund- 
ant, rams by thousands, and oil sufficient 
to fill myriads of rivers; nay, what is 
more, human victims, and of these the 
most endeared, their own offspring. In 
ye y~ Sn nina, myriads of torrents of 
oil, is a ‘double hyperbole, quite in the 
style of the Orientals. For nizan, as 
thus used, comp. 1 Sam. xviii. 7; and for 
yaintn:, Job xx. 17. The fact of 
the presentation of human sacrifices is 
fully established in the ancient history 
of all nations. This barbarous custom 
was especially prevalent among the Phe- 
nicians, and was by them introduced 
into the north of Africa, where it con- 
tinued till the proconsulate of Tiberius. 
According to Porphyry, the book of 
Sanchoniathon was full of examples of 
such sacrifices. That they obtained 
among the idolatrous Israelites is clear 
from Jer. xix. 5, xxxii. 35, who offered 
their children to Moloch or Saturn, after 
the example of their Pheenician neigh- 
bors. Eusebius, in his Preepar. Evangel. 
lib. iv. 16, enters at length into the 
subject; and adduces a passage from 
Philo Byblius which has a special bear- 
ing upon the present text: “ESos jv tots 
mTada.ois, évy Tais peydAais ouumopais TeV 
kwdbvev, avtl ris mavtwv dSopas TO 
HTAMHMENON TON TEKNON ‘ods 
Kparovvras }} méAews 7) Bvovs, eis cha- 
yhy émididévar, Adrpov Tois Tiyzwpois Sal- 
woot. “It was customary among the 
ancients, on calamitous or dangerous em- 
ergencies, for the rulers of the city or 


202 


MICAH, 


Cuap. VIL 


8 He hath showed thee, O man! what is good: 
And what doth Jehovah require of thee, 
But to do justice, and love mercy, 
And be diligent in walking with thy God? 


the state, to prevent the destruction of 
all, to offer up the most dearly beloved of 
their children, as a ransom to divine 
vengeance.” 52 is the future in Niphal 
of the root FE>, to bend, bow one’s self 
down. Comp. Ps. lvii. 7, exly. 14.  In- 
stead of ya93—"bma, rivers of oil, the 
LXX. who have xiudpwy midywv, or, as 
the Alex. MS. reads, apyav, have read 
y2t—"tnn, fat sheep; which rendering 


is followed by the Vulg. and Arab., but 
is unsupported by any other authority. 
The translator was evidently misled by 
an improper view of the parallelism, 

8. The questions put in the preced- 
ing verses do not involve anything like 
irony, as Rosenmiiller and Mauser im- 
agine, but manifestly argue a deep anxi- 
ety about an atonement, and at the same 
time the grossest ignorance of what was 
necessary to constitute that atonement. 
In replying to them, the prophet first of 
all shows, that the ignorance of the 
people was culpable. They had been fur- 
nished with revelations of the mind of 
God upon the subject. 53 tan, He (i.e. 
Jehovah) hath shown or manifested it to 
thee ; or, the verb may be taken imper- 
sonally, and rendered in the passive: It 
hath been shown thee. No MS. supports 
1738, I will show, the reading of the Syr., 
Vulg. and Arab, Had they scarched 
the Divine records they could not have 
failed to discover, that, whatever pre- 
scriptions relative to sacrifices had been 
delivered to them, they had never been 
taught to attach to them any moral 
efficacy, but the contrary. Both reason 
and revelation combined to invest them 
with an ulterior reference, What that 
reference really was, the Apostle plainly 
teaches us, Heb. x. 1: sSxidy yap exwv 
56 vouos Tay pedAbvTwy ATA@QN : — 
the aiu~m of the prophet. Comp. 
Heb. ix. 23, where the sacrifice of 
Christ is, by way of eminence and dis- 
tinction, called kpefrrovat Svota. 


Of this, the only intrinsically valuable 
atonement, the Levitical sacrifices, were 
drodelyuara, instructive examples, or 
types, which were intended to suggest 
and foreshadow it; and, connected as 
they were with the progressive develop- 
ments, which, from time to time, were 
made of the sacerdotal character, and 
the personal oblation of the Great De- 
liverer promised from the beginning, 
the worshippers were without excuse if 
they did not, like Abraham, rejoice in 
the anticipation of his day. Having 
referred the inquirer to the revealed 
method of reconciliation, with a tacit 
intimation of the importance of availing 
himself of it, Micah proceeds to describe 
the conduct which alone could meet with 
the divine approval. The piety required 
by Jehovah, he sums up under three 
heads : strict equity in all our transac- 
tions with our fellow men; a heart set 
on doing them good, according to the 
claims which they have upon us: and 
diligent attention to everything belonging 
to converse with God. Comp. Deut. 
x. 12, 18. See also, as contrasting a 
right state of the heart and life with 
ceremonial services, 1 Sam. xv. 22; Is. 
i. 11-20; Jer. vii, 21-23; Amos y, 
22-24; Hos. vi. 6. A still more com- 
pendious description of genuine religion 
is given by our Lord under the three- 
fold division of «pfois, ZAeos and mloris, 
Matt. xxiii, 23; or, as Luke has for 
the last, rhv ayarny tov Ocod, chap. 
xi. 42; which shows how completely 
mistaken Campbell is in referring it to 
the social virtues, and rendering it fidel- 
ity. There can be little doubt that 
Christ had the passage of Micah in his 


eye. six, Arab. cio, JSecit, elabora- 

vit in re aliqua; paravit ; also, indus- 
o 

trius et solers ; Syr. Lis4) iy astutus, 

callidus ; Eth X30: validus, constans 


» 


a 








¥ 


ae 
oe 


= =) at OF a ee oe, 


—_ a | 


i cc iit i i i dl 


a al 


_ = 


ee ee ee ee 


Cuap. VI. 


MICAH. 


253 


9 The voice of Jehovah crieth to the city, 
(And he who is wise will regard thy name) 
Hear ye the rod, and Him who hath appointed it. 


fuit; to be apt, ready, diligent, to bend 
the mind to anything; here, to apply it 
carefully and sedulously to devotional 
and other spiritual exercises, which are 
essential to communion with God. Thus 
the LXX, éromov civar; Theod. dcda- 
Aigov: the fifth Greek version, ¢pop- 


ti¢ew; the Syr. padi paratus ; Vulg. 


solicitum. The idea of humility, which 
is that adopted in our common version, 
seems to have been derived from the Arab, 


KRwed BA to train one’s horse, @. é. 
bag Cn 


by rendering him submissive and patient 


of restraint ; hence Gade mys equus 


bene exercitatus. See A. Schultens on 
Proy. xi. 2. While this grace is an in- 
dispensable attribute of true religion, and 
lies indeed at its very foundation, it is 
only one of the several important quali- 
ties of which it is composed. The term 
employed by the prophet. comprehends 
them all. Michaelis renders, mzt gewis- 
senhafter sorgfalt, ‘with conscientious 
solicitude.”” The comment of Jerome is 
not unworthy of notice; — “Ita preci- 
pitur ut preparati simus ambulare cum 
Domino Deo nostro, nulla hora dormire, 
nullo tempore securi esse debemus, sed 
semper expectare patremfamilias venien- 
tem et diem formidare judicii, et in nocte 
hujus seculi dicere: ego dormio, et cor 
meum vigilat.” y:s5 is the Hiphil In- 
finitive, used adverbially. Bps. Butler 
and Lowth, Mr. Peters, and some others, 
are of opinion that the sixth, seventh, 
and eighth verses contain a dialogue be- 
tween Balak and Balaam; but there 
does not appear to be sufficient ground 
for it. The connection of these verses 
with verse fifth is not so close as they 
suppose. 

9. On the ground of the foreseen de- 
termination of the Jews, notwithstand- 
ing their present professions of repent- 
ance, to persevere in a line of conduct 
diametrically opposite to that required by 


the Most High, the prophet proceeds to 
summon their attention to the certainty 
of the judgments that were to be inflicted. 
sox> for -*yn5, to the city, i. e. Jeru- 
salem, by way ‘of eminence. As she was 
preéminent in privilege, so she was also 
in regard to wickedness and guilt. m>o:n 
Gesenius refers to an obsolete root m3, 
which he thinks may probably have 
meant to stand, stand out, and so to be. 
From such a root both this noun, and 
w>, being, subsistence, substance, may 
most naturally be derived. ‘The signi- 
fications will then be, that which really 
is, something solid or substantial, real 
wisdom, wealth, power, security, deliver- 
ance, or whatever else best agrees with 


the context. Comp. the Arab. s* 99 


in the acceptations juvet restituitque eegro- 
tum medicina; abundavit opibus vir; 


elise, opulentia, abundantia opum ; 
3 9 largitus est. The noun is used 


in parallelisms with m2, wisdom, ms, 
counsel, TTY, assistance, 2, strength, 
yi, @ shield, etc. The LXX., who 
render it by GdAnd&s, BohSea, leas 
cwtnpla, aoddrea, Bova‘, give in the 
present text the verb adcei, as if they 
had read y> win, from x37; but they 
may, after all, have attached the same 
signification to rvs. The Syriac has 


° > 
Lissas, doctrine ; the Targ. wedi 


teachers. The construction of the word 
here will depend upon the reading of the 
following verb. If, with seven MSS., 
originally one more, and apparently an- 
other, one corrected, and one in the mar- 
gin, the LXX., Syr., Targ., Vulg., and 
Arab., we read ‘J723 "37", those who fear 
thy name, the passage will best be ren- 
dered, there will be safety or deliverance, 
i. e. for such. In this case we have to 
supply the substantive verb, and the ellip- 
sis of 4, to or for. On the other hand, 
if we retain the current reading my? 


204 


MICAH, 


Cuap. VIL 


10 Are there still in the house of the wicked treasures of wicked- 


ness, 


And the accursed scanty ephah ? 
11 Can I be innocent with wicked balances, 
And with a bag of deceitful weights ? 
12 Whose rich men are full of violence, 
And her inhabitants speak falsehood ; 


720) he shall see thy name, we must, 
with our own, and other translators, un- 
derstand gs before mawan, and take 
the noun in the signification solid, or 
sound wisdom. That wrx is frequently 
to be thus understood abstract nouns, 
comp. Ps. cix, 4, 755m "23, Iam prayer, 
for MEN Bs 73, Iama man of prayer ; 
Prov. xiii. 6, nso, sin, for nNen dex, 
the man of sin, i. e. the sinner; xix. 
15. mdx¥, indolence, for mb=¥ drs, the 
man of indolence, etc. What greatly 
favors the reading 729 “x9° is its occur- 
ring only in this place, whereas 7229 "S13 
and other forms of N° with ow, are 
of frequent occurrence. It was quite 
natural for copyists and punctators to 
substitute the former for the latter, but 
not the latter for the former. As to the 
‘ancient versions, the LX X. may, as fre- 
quently, have translated from hearing, 
and thus have mistaken the pronuncia- 
tion of men? for that of 89 », which it 
so nearly resembled. The common read- 
ing best suits the connection. Before an- 
nouncing his message, the prophet paren- 
thetically declares, that, whatever might 
be the treatment it would receive from 
the bulk of the people, the truly wise 
would regard it as God’s message, and 
having special respect to his revealed 
character as thereby disclosed, would 
find in it security and consolation in 
the approaching calamities. The name 
of the Lord is frequently used to ex- 
press the sum total of the Divine attri- 
butes, and often stands for God himself, 
ms, signifies not merely fo see, but to 
recognize practically, to experience. 1 
Sam. xxiv. 12; Ps. xxxiv, 13, lxxxix, 
49; Lam. iii. 1. Contrasted with m ms 


T2B, see Is, xxvi. 10; TOT? PANG MT bo. 


myn, the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and among 
the moderns, Newounss and Ewald, take 
to signify tribe, or collectively tribes, and 
render in the vocative. The Targ. adopts 
a metaphorical signification, correspond- 
ing to that which attaches to v= — 
rendering, B25059) nadi, O King ‘and 
Prince! The acceptation rod, as em- 
blematical of punishment, is best suited 
to the connection. Comp. Is. ix. 3, x. 
5, 24. 129 is also variously translated 
and explained : some deriving it from 
the root m73, ¢o adorn; some from “3y, 
to testify ; some adopt the signification 


of the Arab. (he D minatus fuit; while 


m2, congregation. There is no necessity 
for departing from the ordinary signifi- 
cation of s3-, to fix, appoint. ‘The only 
real difficulty lies in the feminine suffix 
=, Which does not grammatically agree 
with rt; but even this may be re- 
moved by taking the suffix as a neuter, 
or as referring to ; myn, the calamity, un- 
derstood. Comp. Jer. ix. 11. Ewald, 
hire Gemeine und wer sie bestellt! let 
the community hear, and he that ap- 
points it,” understanding thereby the 
king as ‘principal ruler. Hitzig and 
Maurer, as in our common version, both 
make Jehovah the nominative to the 
verb. Comp. Jer, xlvii. 7. 

10—12. Several crimes are here speci- 
fied as a sample of those which abounded, 
and on account of which the Divine 
judgments were to be brought upon the 
land. For s+» at the beginning of a 
sentence, comp. Gen, xix. 12.. Forty- 
nine MSS., thirteen more originally, and 
perhaps one other, with one in the mar- 
gin, read txm the man, instead of gan; 
and this is also the reading of the Son- 


hee 


ae ee ee ee 


Cuap. VI. 


MICAH. 


259 


Their tongue in their mouth is deceitful. 
13 I will surely smite thee incurably, 
Rendering thee desolate on account of thy sins. 
14 Thou mayest eat, but thou shalt not be satisfied, 
For thou shalt be inwardly depressed ; 
Thou mayest remove, but thou shalt not rescue, 
Or what thou rescuest I will give to the sword, 
15 Thou mayest sow, but thou shalt not reap ; 


cin., the Brixian, and five other printed 
editions, and has the approval of Jarchi, 
Abenezra, and Abarbanel, but it affords 
no suitable sense ; and with g>7m in Ken- 
nicott’s MS. 201, must be regarded as 
the result of interpretation. Owing to 
the same cause, numerous MSS. and 
editions have xn. The LXX., Syr., 
and Vulg., have read wan, the fire; but 


’ there cannot be any doubt, that it is 


only another form of w-n, there being 
merely an omission of the Yod, as there 
clearly is, 2 Sam. xiv. 19; and the 
Aleph corresponds to the same letter in 
the cognate forms: Chald. mos, Syr. 


dsl; Arab. els est, exsistit. The 


ellipsis of 3 before m2 is not unfrequent. 
The Hebrews were much given to the 
falsification of their weights and mea- 
sures, though such conduct was repeat- 
edly prohibited by the law, Lev. xix. 
35, 36; Deut. xxv. 13-16; and else- 
where severely condemned in their sac- 
red writings. See Prov. xi. 1, xx. 10; 
and for the practice, comp. Ezek. xlv, 
9,10; Hos. xii. 8; Amos vili.5. rrasst, 
accursed, from tyt, to be angry, indig- 
nant. ‘This participial form presents the 
object as suffering the effects of anger, or 
as marked with the Divine displeasure. 
mats, ver. 11, the LXX., Syr., and 
Targ., have read in the third person 
m21?, though the two last render it in 
the plural. As the MSS. show no va- 
riation, the present reading must be re- 
tained ; but as this verb is never used 
transitively in Kal, we cannot refer the 
nominative to God, and interpret it of 
his inquiring whether he could treat the 
persons in question as innocent, but must: 
regard the prophet as putting the ques- 


tion, for the sake of effect, into the 
mouth of one of themselves, and making 
him ask, how he could possibly lay claim 
to the character, while he had none but 
instruments of fraud in his possession ? 
the antecedent to TEN, whose, ver. 12, 
is “STI city, ver. 9.— 

12, In this, and the following verses, 
severe judgments are threatened against 
the people on account of their iniquitous 
practices. The LXX., Syr., Vulg., and 
Arab., render »n°$inn, I have begun, or, I 
will begin, as if it were the Hiphil of 
b5n, but it is that of nbn, ¢o be in pain, 
sick, etc. As here used with the infini- 
tive of p2n, ¢o smite, inflict punishment, 
it gives intensity to the threatening, and 
expresses the incurable nature of the pun- 
ishment. 

14. myer, is not to be referred, with 
Simonis and Gesenius, to the Arab. 


a> » Same exinanitus fuit, but to 
Ae sequior, et imbecillis, infirmus ; 
and was most likely intended to express 


what we find in the Syr. {.2p-20, 


“‘ the diarrhea shall be within thee.” The 
LXX, taking We2 for Ten. renders, © 
kal cxoTdoe: €v co. 30% is the apocopated 
Hiphil of :52, ¢o remove, and expresses 
the attempt to save goods by removing 
them out of the way of the enemy. 
All the ancient versions have adopted 
the signification of sv with ‘y, to seize, 
lay hold on, but that conjugation of sz, 
has also the signification, to remove any- 
thing. See Job xxiv 2. 

15. my Fam. Oil was expressed 
from the olive, by stamping or treading 
it out with the foot, in the same way as 


206 


MICAH. 


Cuap. VII. 


Thou mayest tread the olive, but thou shalt not pour out the 


oil; 


And the grape of the new wine, but the wine thou shalt not 


drink ; 


16 The statutes of Omri are strictly kept, 
And all the work of the house of Ahab, 
And ye walk in their counsels ; 
That I may make thee desolate, 
And the inhabitants thereof an object of hissing ; 
Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. 


grapes were trodden. Hence the name 
1732 na, Gethsemane, or the otl-press, 
Matt. xxvi. 36. Oil is indispensable to 
oriental comfort, being used for anointing 
the body, and perfuming the garments. 
It is also a very common ingredient in 
food. 

16. Hartmann stumbles at the intro- 
duction of this verse; but it is quite in 
the manner of the prophet, to recur to 
the wicked character of his people. 
“any. is best rendered impersonally, 
though it refers to Dx, people, understood. 
Hithpael is here intensive of Piel. Omri 
is specially mentioned, because he was 
the founder of Samaria and the wicked 
house of Ahab, and a supporter of the 
superstitions of Jeroboam, 1 Kings xvi. 


16-28. 43:05, im order that. The He- 
brews did not, indeed, commit the wicked- 
ness described with the intention of bring- 
ing upon themselves divine punishment ; 
but the punishment was as certainly con- 
nected with the sin, in the purpose of 
God, as if its infliction had been the end 
at which they aimed. sxvm “22 Peon, 
ye shall bear the reproach of my people, 
i. e. your own reproach, that which you 
have deserved ; only the meaning is so 
expressed, in order to derive a high aggra- 
vation of their guilt from the relation in 
which they stood to Jehovah. The 
LXX. have Aaéy, which intimates that 
they either read m2», or “22, as a de- 
fective masculine plural, 





CHAPTER VII. 


BEFORE concluding, the prophet once more reverts to the wickedness of his people, which 
he depicts with the darkest colors, 1-6. He then represents them in their state of cap- 
tivity, brought to repentance, and confidently expecting the Divine interposition, which 
would be rendered the more conspicuous by the complete destruction of their enemies, 
7-10. The restoration of Jerusalem, and the conversion of the hostile nations, are next 
predicted, 11,12; while the previous desolation of Judea is traced to the sins of the in- 
habitants, 18. Turning to Jehovah, he prays for the undisturbed and prosperous con- 
dition of the restored nation, 14; to which a gracious response is given, 15. The over- 
throw of the nations hostile to the Jews, and their reverence for Jehovah, are then 
pointed out, 16,17; and the prophecy closes with a sublime and exulting appeal to his 
gracious character, 18, and an assurance that the covenant people should experience the 
full accomplishment of the sacred engagements into which he had entered with their 


progenitors, 19, 20. 


-Cuap. VII. 


1 Atas for me! 


MICAH. 


207 


For I am as when they gather the summer fruit. 


As when the vintage is gleaned : 


There is no cluster to eat, 


No early fig which my soul desireth. 
| 2 The pious hath perished from the land. 
: And there is none upright among men ; 


They all lie in wait for blood ; 


| They hunt each other into the net. 
8 For evil their hands are well prepared ; 


The prince asketh, 


1. In no part of his prophecy does 
Micah so fearfully describe the universal 
corruption of manners which prevailed 
among the Jews as in the first six verses 
of this chapter. The picture is peculiarly 
applicable to their character in the 
wicked reign of Ahaz, during which the 
prophet flourished, and was awfully 
anticipative of that which they again 
exhibited during the reigns immediately 
preceding the captivity. The preposition 
>in x2 mbbvo VIET ESN, denoting 
time as well as comparison, the two 
nouns in construction must be rendered 
as if they were verbs, though a literal 
translation would be, the gatherings of 
the summer fruit, and the gleanings of 
the vintage. For mina, the early fig, 
see on Is, xxviii. 4. The prophet com- 
pares the strong desire which he felt 

, to meet with a single pious man, to that 
eagerness with which the traveller looks 
in vain for one of those delicious figs 
after the summer has advanced. 

2. Comp. Ps. xii, 1, xiv. 2; Is. lvii. 1. 
pn, rendered in most of the versions 
destruction, signifies also a net, which is 
so called from its enclosing or shutting 
up whatever it catches. Occurring, as 
it here does, in connection with the verb 
“ax, to hunt, it is preferable to take it 
in this acceptation. The Orientals em- 
ployed the net for hunting, as well as 
for fishing. The word is here in the ac- 
cusative case. 

8. This verse is very differently ren- 
dered by translators. The version of it 
which I have given appears to express 
as literally as possible the ideas, which, 

33 





it is generally admitted, the prophet in- 
tended to convey. x°u*7 is frequently 
used to express the doing of anything 
well, skilfully, aptly, and the like. Here 
it is intransitive. Ewald, with Michae- 
lis, Vogel and Déderlein, mistakes the 
meaning of the clause altogether, when 
he explains it of endeavoring by bribery 
to prevail upon the magistrates to pro- 
nounce that to be good which in itself is 
evil. tsi, which he is obliged to con- 
vert into ty*3, a Pual form, of which no 
example occurs in the Hebrew language, 
can only refer to the avaricious passion 
of the ruler, It it, therefore, the wicked- 
ness of their governors and judges, and 
not that of the people themselves, which 
the latter clauses of the verse describe. 
After ts" supply tm; and after vb, 
wes. Thesubstantive m17, like the Arab. 
s Saad , desideravit, voluit, has here the sig- 


nification, wish, desire, will. See Schul- 
tens on Prov. x.-3; and the Koran ii. 87: 


Kunis sre) is a whenever @ 


messenger cometh to you with that which 
your souls ar es not.” Comp. Ps. lii. 
9; Prov. xi. 6; and for the cognate 
wE2 mix, Deut. xii. 15, 20. nag, sig- 
nifies to intertwine, bind together, as the 


‘branches of trees, ropes, etc. ; here, me- 


taphorically, to effect by united effort. 
Comp. the Arab. Guns, miscuit com- 


b 
miscuit, Syr. was, concordavit. 











RA > 
5B: THE R 


fi s& as 


258 MICAH. 


And the judge also, for a reward ; 


And the great man giveth utterance to the desire of his soul ; 


They combine to act perversely. 


4 The best of them is like a prickly thorn ; 
The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge ; 
The day of thy watchmen, thy visitation cometh ; 


Now shall be their perplexity. 


5 Place no faith in a companion ; 


Trust not a familiar friend ; 


From her that lieth in thy bosom 


Guard the doors of thy mouth. 


6 For the son despiseth his father ; 
The daughter riseth up against her mother ; 
The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law : 
A man’s enemies are the members of his own family. 


Dathe: conjunctis viribus exequuntur. 
The princes, judges, and great men, con- 
spired to set aside all law and right in 
their treatment of the poor of the land, 
The suffix » is to be taken as a neuter, 
and refers to the injustice practised by 
the rulers. Thus Calvin : “ Deinde com- 
plicant ipsam pravitatem: hoc est hine 
fit ut grassetur furiosa crudelitas, quoniam 
conspirant inter se et gubernatores et qui 
volunt sibi acquirere peccandi licentiam : 
quasi contexerent inter se funes, con- 
firmant hoc modo pravitatem.” 

4, Both 2ivu, good, and “3%, upright, 
are here used superlatively. Comp. for 
this use, Gen. xlv. 23; Is. i. 19; Exod. 
xv. 4. It frequently occurs in Arabic. 
P1n is now allowed to designate a species 
of thorn, and not a brier. As the 1 now 
stands before m>:072, it must be taken as 
an emphatic comparative, which derives 
its force, not from any adjective ex- 
pressed, but from the noun to which it.is 
prefixed, as in Ps. lxii. 10; Is, xli, 24; 
or it may have originally belonged asa 
suffix to the preceding noun =>, in which 
case Dai and cw» must have corres- 
ponded to each other, leaving an ellipsis 
of the > which had just been used in 

rin. By “the day of thy watchmen,” 
the period of calamity predicted by the 
prophets is meant. ‘With this, the fol- 


lowing 157, visitation, is explicatively 
parallel. ae moi Di, a day of per- 
plexity, see on Is. xxii. 5, The reference 
in p is not to the watchmen, improperly 
interpreted by some of false prophets ; 
nor is it to be confined to the persons 
of rank and office described ver. 3; but 
to the people generally. 

5,6. aby, Arab. Vaal], familiaris 
socius, from wall, conjunxit, sociavit, 
etc., a familiar, and, by implication, a 
confidential, friend. ban Bers Pe we 
éryud¢e. Comp. Deut. xxxii, 15. The 
root $23, primarily signifies to wither, fall 
off as leaves, and tropically to act wickedly, 
irreligiously, as one that has fallen off 
from God. Comp, >2:, Ps. xiv. 1. meas, 
an atrocious deed, Gen, xxxiv. 7; Jud. 
xix, 23, 24. The state of things here 
described is that of the most wretched 
perfidiousness, anarchy, and confusion, 
in which the most intimate could have 
no confidence in each other, and the 
closest ties of relationship were violated 
and contemned. . Comp. Jer. ix. 2-6. 
—éaArortplous GAAHAw elvat mdyras Tous 
wy omovdatovs, Kal ‘yoveis réxvwy, Kal 
adeAHods deAGGr, oixelous olnelwy. Diog. 
Laert. vii. 32. In language strikingly 
similar, Ovid describes the iron age : 


Cuar. VII. 


7 But I will look for Jehovah ; 


MICAH. 


I will wait for the God of my salvation ; 


My God will hear me. 


8 Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy! 
Though I have fallen, I shall rise again ; 
_ Though I sit in darkness, Jehovah is my light. 
9 I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, 
Because I have sinned against him ; 
Till he plead my cause, and give effect to my sentence}; 
He will bring me forth to the light ; 
I shall behold his righteousness. 


10 Mine enemy also shall see it, 
And shame shall cover her. 


She that said to me, Where is Jehovah thy God ? 


Mine eyes ett: behold her ; 


s‘ Vivitur ex rapto; non hospes ab hos- 
pite tutus, 

Non soror a genero; fratrum quoque 
gratia rara est. 

Imminet exitio vir conjugis, illa mariti ; 

Lurida terribiles miscent aconita no- 
verce, 

Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in 
annos,” 

Metamorph, i, 144. 


Our Saviour appropriates the words to 
the treacherous and cruel treatment which 
he taught his disciples to expect from 
their nearest relatives, Matt. x. 35, 36; 
‘Luke xii, 53. 

7. Having described the wickedness 
of the Jews, the prophet abruptly changes 
the scene, and introduces them to view 
in that state of captivity in Babylon in 
which it was to issue. There, at a dis- 
tance from the land of their fathers, they 
are brought to repentance, and the ex- 
ercise of true piety; and seeking again 
to their covenant God, they express the 
fullest confidence that he would in due 
time deliver them from banishment. 
mx, here used in Piel, signifies to look 
out for an answer to prayer, divine aid, 
ete. Comp. Ps, v. 4. 

8, 9. Who the enemy intended by the 
prophet is, cannot be positively decided, 
Some interpreters think Babylon ; others, 
Edom. For the former, see Jer. 1. 11; 


for the latter, Obad. 123 for both, Ps. 
exxxvii, 7, 8. baawnma, daughter of 
Babylon, or g>x~n2, daughter of Edom, 
for Babylon and Edom themselves, is 
understood in the feminine participle 
na? 8, mine enemy. For the idiom, see 
on Is. i. 8. The Jews understand Rome 
as professing Christianity to be meant by 
the enemy. See Pococke on verses 9th 
and 10th. Light” and “ darkness” 
are used, as frequently, for prosperity and 
adversity. The 9th verse contains a beau- 
tiful specimen of submissiveness and pa- 
tient endurance of suffering, from a 
humbling conviction of the demerit of 
sin ; accompanied by the firm persuasion, 
that when the chastisement had answered 
its end, Jehovah would graciously afford 
deliverance. HE 1S: righteousness, is here 
to be understood with reference to the 
kindness or favor which God was to 
show to his people, in strict accordance 
with the tenor of his promises, rather 
than to the punishment of their enemies. 

10. The deliverance of the Jews was 
to be the occasion of the destruction of 
their foes, who, because the former had 
no visible object of worship, and had 
been delivered into their power, taunt- 
ingly asked: sms mint ix, where is 
Jehovah thy God? ‘The feminine suffix 
refers to 4}9>u—na, daughter of Zion, un- 
derstood. 


260 


MICAH. 


Cuap. VII. 


She shall now be trodden upon as the mire of the streets. 
11 In the day when thy walls shall be rebuilt, 

In that day the decree shall be extended ; 
12 In that day they shall come to thee 


From Assyria to Egypt ; 


Even from Egypt to the river, 


From sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 


11, 12. Micah resumes the language 
of prophecy, and, addressing Jerusalem, 
announces her restoration, and the way 
that would be paved for the conversion 
of the surrounding hostile nations to the 
true religion, Such appears to me to be 
the meaning of these verses, which have 
been very variously interpreted. pn, 
statute, decree, order, appointment, LXX. 
véuimwa, Symm. émrayyn, Theod.  mpé- 
oTayua, some refer to the tyrannical 
enactments of the Babylonians ; some to 
the order of Artaxerxes, Ezra iv. 21; 
some to the punishment decreed upon 
the enemies of the Jews; some to the 
idolatrous statutes, with which the Jews 
complied ; some to the boundary of the 
Holy Land; and some to the preaching 
of the gospel among all nations, of which 
last interpretation Calvin says: ‘Sed 
locus hic non patitus se ita violenter tor- 
queri.” Secker, Newcome, Vogel, Déd- 
erlein, and others, join pn to pin, and 
form a reduplicate verb pPnpnn, ‘of the 
whole; with whom, as to meaning, 
Gesenius agrees, who rejects -n_ alto- 
gether, and renders, dies tlle procul abest, 
Thesaur. p. 1284. What would seem to 
determine the meaning of the term, as 
here used, is the light thrown upon Pnn, 
to be distant, remove to a distance, etc., 
by the geographical specifications con- 
tained in verse 12th. The subject of 
both verses is sufficiently proved to be 
identical, by the repetition of sam 57>, 
that day, which indisputably is the D3», 
day, spoken of at the beginning of verse 
11th. Whatever the decree or command 
was, the effect of its promulgation was to 
be the coming of foreigners from different 
regions to the Jewish people, reassemb- 
ling at Jerusalem, sia" ‘3°72. The most 
natural construction is, that the decree 
of God respecting the political changes 


that were to take place, was not to be 
cenfined to Babylon, but was to be ex- 
tended to all the countries round about 
Judea, in consequence of which great 
numbers would become proselytes to the 
Jewish faith. There is an ellipsis of the 
preposition 3, im, before tis, day, in all 
the three instances in which it here oc- 
curs. 1 before 3°"¥ is not pleonastic, 
but is used, as in several other instances, 
after words which imply condition or time. 
See Exod. xvi. 6; 1 Sam. xxv. 27. sia 
is used impersonally : “one, they shall 
come ;”’ it is rendered in the plural in 
the LXX., Targ., and Arab., and one of 
Kennicott’s MSS. reads isin". That 
“94 has originally been "12%, the pa- 
rallelism, compared with other instances 
of its occurrence, sufficiently shows. The 
change of 7 into =, and vice versd, by 
transcribers, owing to their great resem- 
blance to each other, is very common. 
For example in rp*= and ress, 1 Chron. 
1.65; teatin and or3349, ver. 7; Cont 
and pont, Ps. liv. 5; a and 377, 
Ixxxl. 7; jirct2 and ys5°, Prov. x. 323 
and especially as Fee a to the 
present case, 5") and 3-7», Ps. cxxxix, 
20. The latter reading is found in fif- 
teen MSS., has been originally in eleven 
more, and i in one printed edition. No 
objection can be taken from the preposi- 
tion assuming the poetic form "TZ, while 
in the following sentence we have “p ; 
the same variety appears in “4ms and 
=n, 1 Sam. xi. 7. It is also worthy of 
notice that the LXX. have read 5>=» at 
the beginning of the verse, as if it had 
been 572, having rendered it af méaes 
cov. By siz, I understand Evypét, and 
not fortification. Comp. 2 Kings xix, 
24, Is. xix. 6, on which see my note. 





ee 


—— a ee a ee 


— 


ee a 








& 


af 
Fs 
Ve | 
Lu 


Bk ARPS 





ne 
ry 
1 

% 

i 

ce 
f 
+ 
i 

j BS 

so 
> 
é: 

ae 


AO EF he tee 


ae LS 


Lo 
2 


Te ee ae 


Cuap. VII. 


MICAH. 


261 


13 Nevertheless the land shall be desolate 
On account of her inhabitants, 
Because of the fruit of their doings. 


14 
The flock of thine heritage ; 


Feed thy people with thy crook, 


That dwell alone in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; 
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in ancient days. 


15 


Upon this construction, Assyria and 
Egypt are contrasted, just as they are Is. 
xix. 23, where the same subject is treated 
of in almost the same language. 73, the 
river, kar’ éegoxhv, t. e. the Euphrates, 
corresponding in the parallelism to -33x. 
Assyria. The Syr. and Targ. have mis- 
taken 44% in “is, for Tyre ; as the lat- 
ter has "31, for Armenia. The conclud- 
ing words of the verse, “aM AT osc, 
stand irregularly for -721 pins aay 
sn-7z1- It does not appear that any 
specific mountains are intended; the 
prophet describes in general terms the 
natural boundaries of the countries from 
which the persons spoken of were to 
come. For a prophetical illustration of 
these verses, see on Is. xix. 23-25. 

13. The conjunctive » in sn77 is used 
antithetically to introduce a sentence pre- 
dictive of what should take place previous 
to the arrival of the events mentioned in 
the verses immediately preceding. It 
has the force of but yet, nevertheless, or 
the like. However bright the prospects 
which opened upon the Jews in futurity, 
they were not to forget the punishment 
that was to intervene, but ought to repent 
of their sins, to which it was to be traced 
as its cause. Some interpret yvasn, the 
land, of Babylonia ; but this construction 
seems less apt. 

14. In the believing anticipation of 
the fulfilment of the Divine promises 
made to the covenant people, Micah 
‘addresses a prayer to Jehovah, which, 
though brief, is distinguished for the 
poetical elevation of its style, and the 
appropriateness of its petition. Like 
many other prayers in the Old Testa- 
ment, it is prophetic in its aspect. The 
Jewish people are frequently spoken of 
under the metaphor of a flock, and Je- 


As in the days of thy coming forth from Egypt, 


hovah as their shepherd. See Ps. Ixxx. 
1. xcv. 7, c. 3. They are also often re- 
presented as his special heritage, Deut. 
iv. 20, vii. 6,xxxii.9, Some understand 
s1n% ss Sw, dwelling alone or solitarily, as 
descriptive of the condition of the Jews in 
captivity, and -35, forest, of the dangers 
and annoyances to which they were ex- 
posed while in that state. That it rather 
refers to the security and prosperity of 
their restored condition may fairly be 
concluded from the meaning of similar 
language in other passages. Thus, in 
the celebrated prophecy of Balaam, Num. 
xxiil. 9, which, in all probability, Micah 
had in view, we read, 4>¥" 72235 t2—47n 
agrn? xd Oran, Behold! the people 
shall dwell alone, and shall not be reck- 
oned among the nations, Comp. Deut. 
xxxiil. 28; Jer. xlix. 31; and for -»-, 
as used figuratively for a place of safety 
and cool repose, see Ezek. xxxiv. 25, 
The meaning of the prophet is, that on 
being brought back to their own land, 
they should no longer be mixed with, 
and exposed to enemies, but live by 
themselves in a state of undisturbed tran- 
quillity. For instances of the paragogic 
Yod affixed to participles, see Gen. xlix. 
11; Deut. xxxiii. 16; Obad. 3; Zech. 
xi. 17. That the Carmel here mentioned 
must be the celebrated mountain on the 
coast of the Mediterranean, see on Amos 
i.2. The regions of Bashan and Gilead, 
on the east of the Jordan, were likewise 
celebrated for their rich pasturage, and 
were, on this account, chosen by the 
tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half 
tribe of Manasseh, Numb, xxxii.; Deut. 
iii. 12-17. Comp. as strictly parallel, 
Jer. 1, 19. 

15. The answer of Jehovah to the 
prophet’s prayer, assuring the nation, 


262 


MICAH. 


Cuap. VIL 


I will show them marvellous things. 
16 The nations shall see it, and be ashamed of all their power; 
They shall lay their hands upon their mouth; 


Their ears shall become deaf. 


17 They shall lick dust like the serpent ; 
Like reptiles of the earth they shall tremble from their hiding- 


places ; . 


They shall turn with fear towards Jehovah; 


They shall be afraid of thee. 


18 Who isa God like thee, 


Pardoning iniquity, and passing by transgression, 
In regard to the remnant of his heritage ? 

He retaineth not his anger for ever, 

Because he delighteth in mercy, 

He will again have compassion upon us, . 


that the same Almighty power which 
had interposed in so remarkable a man- 
ner for their deliverance from Egypt, 
would again wonderfully appear on their 
behalf. Comp. Jer. xvi. 14, 15. Such 
changes of person as in 3, ¢hy, and 43, 
him, are common. The reference in 
both is to the people of the Jews. 

16. The -4:23, power, spoken of, is 
that of the hostile nations, of which they 
were so proud, and which they regarded 
as invincible, and not that of the Jews 
when restored, as Junius and Tremellius, 
Tarnovius, Stokes, and some others, have 
imagined. The latter half of the verse 
most graphically describes the silence, 
astonishment, and utter consternation, 
with which they should be seized. Com. 
Jud. xviii. 19; Job xxi. 5; Ps. evii. 42; 
Is. lii. 15. 

17. An equally graphic description of 
the state of degradation and terror to 
which the enemies were to be reduced. 
Comp. Ps. lxxii. 9; Is, xlix. 28, xv. 25. 
For p-bii, crawlers, or reptiles, comp. 
Deut. xxxii. 24. The distinctive use of 
tx, to and 41, from or of, as here used, 
shows that there is not a change of person 
in ‘y72"2, and that the affix 3 refers, not 
to Jehovah, but to the people of the Jews. 
The fear ultimately produced in the minds 
of their enemies was to be a religious fear 
or veneration which should attract them 


towards Jehovah as its object. Comp. 
for this construction of $y “mB, to exer- 
cise reverential regard towards God, Hos. 
iii. 5. Combined with the circumstan- 
ces under which the nations were to ac- 
knowledge the supremacy of Jehovah, 
was their standing in awe of the political 
power of the Jews. See on Is. xix. 17. 
18. Impelled by strong feelings of 
gratitude at the anticipated deliverance 
of his people, the prophet breaks out 
into a strain of the sublimest praise and 
admiration, and gives a description of 
the gracious character of God, unrivalled 
by any contained in the Scriptures. The 
phrase »gE—by “a>, passing by trans- 
gression, is a metaphor, taken from the 
conduct of a traveller who passes on 
without noticing an object to which he 
does not wish to give his attention. The 
idea which it communicates is not, that 
God is unobservant of sin, or that it is 
regarded by him as a matter of little or 
no importance, but that he does not mark 
it in particular cases with a view to pun- 
ishment; that he does not punish, but 
forgive. Comp. Prov. xix. 11, Amos vii. 
8, in which latter passage the verb alone 
is used. The opposite is expressed by — 
713 "28, to watch iniquity, Ps. cxxx. 3, 
a. e. to keep it in view in order to punish 
it. mos, remnant, does not necessarily 


imply a small or inconsiderable number, 





prngtp Semmes oy 


i) EN ees 


— stinas 


© MEE SIS lei ik So ge aN Mp aS 


phe or 


Car. VII. 


19 He will subdue our iniquities ; 


MICAH. 


263 


Yea, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 
20 Thou wilt grant the truth to Jacob, 


The kindness to Abraham, 


Which thou didst sware to our fathers 


From the days of old. 


but merely conveys the general notion of 
a surviving body of men: here it means 
those of the Jewish nation who should 
be alive at the termination of the cap- 
tivity. ‘yin, to delight, according to the 


Arab. (Gis, flexit, inflexit, lignum, 
projecit, properly expresses the bent or 
propension of the mind, or what we 
commonly call its inclination towards an 
object; hence desire, affection, delight. 
The combined force of "oh Vy5Nn, dent on 
kindness, is inimitable, the primary idea 
of som being that of eager desire or love 
towards an object. It is the term which 
is so often rendered loving-kindness in 
our common version. 

19. This verse may be regarded as 
containing a beautiful epiphonema, in 
which the people of the Jews exultingly 
avow their full confidence in the forgiv- 
ing mercy and subduing power of their 
God. ‘8, to turn, in we" 350", is, 
as usual before another verb, * employed 
adverbially to signify again. God had 
often pitied and delivered his people. It 
is here intimated that his compassion 
was not exhausted, but should be exer- 
cised towards them anew. All the mean- 
ing found by Rosenmiiller, Gesenius and 
Maurer, in 33°n3i2 G2, is that of dis- 
regarding or not avenging, but there is 
no ground for rejecting the radical idea 
of trampling under foot as enemies. Sin 
must ever be regarded as hostile to man. 
It is not only contrary to his interests, 
but it powerfully opposes and combats 


the moral principles of his nature, and 
the higher principles implanted by grace; 
and but for the counteracting energy of 
divine influence, must prove victorious. 
Without the subjugation of evil propen- 
sities, pardon would not be a blessing. 
If the idolatrous and rebellious disposi- 
tion of the Jews had not been subdued 
during their stay in Babylon, they would 
not have been restored. The total and 
irrevocable forgiveness of sins is forcibly 
expressed by casting them into the 
depths of the sea. What is deposited 
there is completely hid from the view, 
and cannot in any way affect us. Instead 
of tnkwn, their sins, five MSS. read 
;3°mNen, owr sins, which is the read- 
ing of the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and Arab. 
It may, however, only be a correction ; 
the change of person we have frequently 
had occasion to notice. 

20. The return from captivity, while 
it furnished a striking specimen of the 
covenanted fidelity and kindness of Je- 
hovah, was only preliminary to the in- 
finitely greater display of these attributes 
in the mission of the Messiah, the Seed 
of Abraham in whom all the families of 
the earth were to be blessed. The words 
of this verse are quoted, with scarcely 
any variation, in the inspired song of 
Zacharias, with direct application to [lim 
of whom his son had just been born to 
be the forerunner, Luke i. 72, 73. Be- 
fore the names of the patriarchs, a verb 
signifying to declare, promise, or the like, 
is understood. 


NAHUM. 





PREFACE. 


Ow1na to the paucity of information respecting the prophet Nahum, 
little can be said in regard to his life and times. All that we know of 
him personally is, that he was the native of a town or village called Elkosh, 
chap. i, 1. 

The only historical data furnished by the book itself with respect to the 
period at which he flourished, are the following: the humiliation of the king- 
doms of Israel and Judah, by the Assyrian power, chap. ii. 3; the final in- 
vasion of Judah by that power, i. 9, 11; and the conquest of Thebes in 
Upper Egypt, iii. 8-10. But the removal of the glory of the Hebrew king- 
doms, to which reference is made, could only be that which was effected by 
Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, by whom the Israelites were carried into 
captivity ; when the Jews also were harassed and spoiled by the Syrians, as 
well as impoverished by the large sum of money paid by Ahaz to the former 
of these monarchs. See Is. vii.—ix.; 2 Chron. xxviii. Sargon, who appears 
to have succeeded Shalmaneser, not satisfied with the reduction of Pheenicia 
by that king, and fearing lest-Egypt should prevail upon the conquered prov- 
inces of the west to join her in a confederacy against him, undertook an ex- 
pedition into Africa ; and, though history is silent as to the event, it would 
appear from chap. iii. 8-10, that the expedition proved so far successful, that 
he took Thebes, the celebrated metropolis of Upper Egypt. It was by his 
successor, Sennacherib, that the last attempt was made by the Assyrians to 
crush the Jewish people, which issued in the total defeat of their army. 

Now, since the last of these events took place in the fourteenth year of 
Hezekiah, and the circumstances connected with it are clearly referred to by 
Nahum, partly prophetically, and partly as matter of historical notoriety, 
chap. i. 9-18, it follows that he must have lived in, or about the year B. c. 
714. Jarchi, Abarbanel, Grotius, Junius and Tremelius, and Justi, place 
him in the reign of Manasseh, and some, as Ewald, would make him contem- 
porary with Josiah; but Bp. Newton, Eichhorn, Bertholdt, Rosenmiiller, 
Newcome, Horne, Gesenius, de Wette, Jahn, Gramberg, Winer, Maurer, 
and Knobel, unanimously agree with Jerome in referring his ministry to the 
latter half of the reign of Hezekiah. Neither the opinion of Josephus, that 
he foretold the destruction of Nineveh in the reign of Jotham, nor that of 
Clement of Alexandria, that he lived between Daniel and Ezekiel, has met 
with any supporters. But if, as is highly probable, he flourished in one of 
the latter years of Hezekiah, his prophecy must have been delivered nearly » 





} sind 


" 


PREFACE TO NAHUM. 265 


one hundred years before its accomplishment ; for Nineveh was overthrown, 
and the Assyrian power destroyed, by the joint forces of Cyaxares and Na- 
bopolassar, in the reign of Chyniladanus, B. c. 625. 

Considerable difference of opinion obtains with respect to the birth-place of 
the prophet. That »vpbyn, the Elkoshite, was designed to point out the place 
of his nativity, and ot his paternity, as the Targumist interprets, is evident 
from a comparison of the form with similar instances of the Yod aflixed, 
1 Kings xvii. 1; Jer. xxix.27; Micahi.1. There are two cities of the name 
of Elkosh, each of which has had its advocates, as that which may lay claim 
to the honor of having given birth to Nahum. The one, ig |, Elkosh, is 
situated in Koordistan, on the east side of the Tigris, about three hours’ jour- 
ney to the north of Mosul, which lies on the same side of the river, opposite 
to Nunia, supposed to be the site of ancient Nineveh. It is inhabited by 
Chaldean or Nestorian Christians, and is a place of great resort by Jewish 
pilgrims, who firmly believe it to be the birth-place and the burial-place of 
the prophet, to whose tomb they pay special respect. It is, however, gener- 
ally thought that the tradition which connects this place with his name is of 
later date; and that it owes its origin to the Jews or the Nestorians, who 
imagined that he must have lived near the principal scene of his prophecy ; 
and that the name had been transferred to the place from a town so called in 
Palestine just as our colonists have given the name of towns in Britain to 
those which they have erected in America and Australia. The other place 
is Elcesi, or Elkesi, a village in Galilee, which was pointed out to Jerome as 
a place of note among the Jews, and which, though small, still exhibited some 
slight vestiges of more ancient buildings.** Eusebius mentions it in his ac- 
count of Hebrew places; and Cyrill (ad cap. i. 1,) is positive as to its 
situation being in Palestine.t It has been thought, and not without reason, 
by some, that Capernaum, Heb. tin2 72>, most properly rendered the village 
of Nahum, derived its name from our prophet having resided in it, though he 
may have been born elsewhere in the vicinity, just as it is said to have been 
4 idta wéAus of our Lord, though he was born at Bethlehem. 

Where the prophet was when he delivered his predictions, is not specified ; 
but, from his familiar reference to Lebanon, Carmel, and Bashan, it may be 
inferred that he prophesied in Palestine ; while the very graphic manner in 
which he describes the appearance of Sennacherib and his army, chap. i. 
9-12, would seem to indicate that he was either in, or very near to Jerusalem 
at the time. What goes to confirm this supposition, is the number of terms, 
phrases, etc., which he evidently borrowed from the lips of Isaiah. Comp. 
nye) nbs 729 409, i. 8, and myssm ndo, ver. 9, with "391 519, Is. viii. 8, 
and ny? mbo, Is. x. 23; npigns news mp, ii. 11, with wpdian pas pris, 


*“ Porro quod additur, Naum Elcesei, quidam putant Elceseum patrem esse Naum, et 
secundum Hebraam traditionem etiam ipsum prophetam fuisse; quum Elcesi usque hodie 
in Galilea viculus sit, parvus quidem et vix ruinis veterum xdificiorum indicans vestigia, 
sed tamen notus Judzis, et mihi quoque a circumducente monstratus.” — Hieron. Pref. in 
Naum. 


T rod amd rijs "EAkect noun dt arn mdvtws mod Tis lovdalay xépas. 
34 


266 PREFACE TO NAHUM. 


Is. xxiv. 1; pranebsa mbndim, i ii. 11, with month "m0 axdy3, Is. xxi. 3; 
nits sonata niga *b39 onan man, li. 1, with “ban Danny — 
bits) yore nen, Is. lii. 7, ete. 

The subject of the prophecy i is the destruction of Nineveh, which Nahum 
introduces, after having in the first chapter, and at the beginning of the 
second, depicted the desolate condition to which,.in the righteous providence 
of God, the country of the ten tribes had been reduced by the Assyrian 
power; the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib, whose destruction, and that 
of his army, he predicts; and the joyful restoration of both the captivities to 
their own land, and the enjoyment of their former privileges. His object ob- 
viously was, to inspire his countrymen with the assurance, that, however 
alarming their circumstances might appear, exposed as they were to the for- 
midable army of the great eastern conqueror, not only should his attempt 
fail, and his forces be entirely destroyed, but his capital itself should be 
taken, and his empire overturned. The book is not to be divided into three 
separate parts, or prophecies, composed at different times, as some have im- 
agined, but is to be regarded as one entire poem, the unity of which is plainly 
discoverable throughout. 

The style of Nahum is of a very high order. He is inferior to none of the 
minor prophets, and scarcely to Isaiah himself, in animation, boldness, and 
sublimity ; or, to the extent and proportion of his book, in the variety, fresh- 
ness, richness, elegance, and force of his imagery. The rhythm is regular 
and singularly beautiful; and with the exception of a few foreign or provin- 
cial words, his language possesses the highest degree of classical purity. His 
description of the Divine character at the commencement is truly majestic ; 
that of the siege and fall of Nineveh inimitably graphic, vivid and impres- 
sive. 


Eee eee 


re 
ean 


CHAPTER I. 


THE prophet opens with a sublime description of the attributes and operations of Jehovah, 
with a view to inspire his people with confidence in his protection, 2-8. The Assyrians 
are then unexpectedly addressed and described, 9-11; and their destruction, together 
with the deliverance of the Jews connected with that event, are set forth in the language 


of triumph and exultation, 12-15. 


1 ‘Tue SENTENCE oF NINEVEH: 


The Book of the Vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. 
2 Jehovah is a jealous and avenging God; 
Jehovah is an avenger and furious ; 
Jehovah is an avenger with respect to his adversaries ; 


1. For the meaning of Ss, see on 
Is, xiii. 1; and for the historical circum- 
stances connected with Nineveh, see on 
Jonah i, 2. Between the time of the 
prophet just referred to and that of Na- 
hum, there elapsed a period of about one 
hundred and fifty years. The inscrip- 
tion consists of two parts; the former of 
which is supposed by some to be from a 
later hand. If genuine, we should rather 
expect the order to have been reversed. 

1. The exordium, which begins here 
and reaches to ver. 8, is highly magnifi- 
cent. The repeated use of the Incom- 
municable Name, and of the participle 
tps, avenging or avenger, gives great 
force to the commencement. Nothing 
can exceed in grandeur and sublimity 
the description which the prophet fur- 
nishes of the Divine character. The 
attributes of infinite purity, inflexible 
rectitude, irresistible power and bound- 
less goodness, set forth and illustrated 
by images borrowed from the history of 
the Hebrews, the scenery of Palestine, 
and the more astounding phenomena of 
nature, present to view a God worthy 
of the profoundest reverence, the most 
unbounded confidence, and the most in- 
tensive love. How inferior the other- 
wise sublime description given of the 
anger of Jove by Auschylus: 


xSav ceocdrevTat’ 

Bpuxta 8 ix mapamvnarat 
Bpovrijs, €Aiwes 8 éxAdumovet 
aTepomijs (dmvpot, orpduBor 5& Kéviv 
eiAlocovot’ oKxipta 8 dveuwv 
mvevuata mdvTwy, eis BAANAG| 
ordow aytinvouy arodexvipeva. 

Prom. vinctus, 1089. 
wisp, jealous, from s2xp, to be warm, 
(nrdw, burn with zeal, anger, jealousy. 
The term is here used dvSpwroradas, 
principally in the last of these accepta- 
tions, though not to the entire exclusion 
of the others. The term describes a keen 
feeling of injured right, coupled with a 
strong inclination to see justice done to 
the parties concerned. ssn b23; lit. a 
lord, or master of fury, an idiom by which 
the possession of an attribute or quality is 
frequently expressed. Com.n4icbmn tyr 
a master of dreams, i. e. a dreamer ; +33, 
yitbn, @ master of the tongue, i. e. elo- 
quent. In these verses the prophet ap- 
pears to have an eye specially to the judg- 
ments which God had brought upon his 
country by means of the Assyrians, both 
when they carried away the ten tribes, 
and now when they had again rushed 
into the land, and taken the fortified 
cities of Judah. “w3, properly signifies 
to watch, observe, in a bad sense, to mark 


for punishment. Arab. ye. ocuios con~ 


268 


NAHUM. 


Cuap. I, 


He keepeth his anger for his enemies. 
8 Jehovah is long-suffering, but great in power; 
He will by no means treat them as innocent: 
Jehovah hath his way in the whirl-wind and in the storm, 
And the clouds are the dust of his feet. 
4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, 


He parcheth up all the rivers: 


Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, 
And the bloom of Lebanon languisheth. 


5 The mountains quake at him, 
And the hills are melted ; 


The earth heaves at its presence, 
The world and all that inhabit it. 
6 Before his indignation who can stand ? 
And who can subsist in the heat of his anger ? 


His fury is poured out like fire, 


And the rocks are overthrown by him. 

4 Jehovah is good, a fortress in the day of distress ; 
And knoweth those that trust in him. 

8 But with an overflowing inundation 


vertit ad rem; hs, custodem et obser- 


vatorem egit. Comp. Ps. ciii, 9; Jer. iii, 
5, 12; and -03, Ps. cxxx. 3. 

8. mz22Nd np, holding pure will not 
hold pure, i. e. will not treat as innocent 
those who are guilty, but, on the con- 
trary, punish them according to their 
demerit. LXX. é30ay ob« &S0do1. Com, 
Exod. xx. 7, xxxiv. 7. The idea con- 
veyed by the metaphor, the clouds are the 
dust of his feet, is exceedingly sublime. 
Large and majestic as the clouds may 
be, in reference to God, they are but as 
the most minute particles of dust raised by 
the feet in walking. xx, signifies Light 
dust or powder, what is easily raised. 

4. What is here predicated of Jehovah 
is attributed to our Saviour, Luke viii. 
24: émrlunoe—T@ Kavdwr Tod Bdaros. 
The action involves omnipotence. 73321 
is a contracted form of the Piel, for 
ang2t'1, as mae3 for nary, Lam. iii. 33, 
in both of which the radical Yod gives 
its vowel to the preformative letter. 

5 There is no authority for rendering 


wera, to be burnt up: none of the MSS. 
or ancient versions directing us to any 
root signifying to burn. The verb is 
likewise thus rendered in our common 
version, 2 Sam. v. 21, but the marginal 
reading is, took them away. The Targ. 
indeed has m255n, vastata est, but the 
LXX. render dveordAn. Symm, éxwfSy- 


The Syr. AS} shaketh. Vulg. con- 


tremuit. The root is Nw2, to raise, lift 
up; intransitively, to lift up one’s self ; and 
appropriately expresses here the raising or 
heaving of the ground by an earthquake. 

6. The pouring out of wrath, dike fire, 
would seem to be a comparison taken 
from volcanoes, which pour out furiously 
their streams of liquid fire over the cir- 
cumjacent regions. The breaking in 
pieces of the rocks, in the following 
hemistich, confirms this idea. Comp. 
Jer. li. 25, 26. 

7, 8. There is a marked antithesis in 
these two verses, in the course of which 
the prophet arrives at his main topic, the 
destruction of Nineveh. Ver. 7 beauti- 





1 
y 
} 
4 
; 
: 


Sa tet eae Oe ee 2 ae ea 


aa eS ST ae ee 


et ee we ee eee Sr ey, 


——_ 2 er 


a eee hy ee ee eee oe ee ae 


Cxuap. I, 


NAHUM. 269 


He will effect a consummation of her place, 
And darkness shall pursue his enemies. 

9 What devise ye against Jehovah? 
He will effect a consummation ; 


Distress shall not twice arise. 


fully depicts the safety and happiness of 
those who make God their refuge, how 
severe soever may be the calamity which 
threatens or may have overtaken them ; 
and was primarily intended to administer 
comfort to the pious Jews in the prospect 
of the Assyrian attack by Sennacherib. 
317, to know, is here, as frequently, taken 
in the sense of knowing with regard, 
kindness, or love. Comp. Ps. i. 6, exliv. 
3; Amos iii. 2. In 2 U3, the met- 


aphor of a river impetuously overflowing 
its banks, rushing into the adjacent 
country, and passing through, carrying 
all before it, is employed to denote the 
ruthless invasion of a country by a hos- 
tile and powerful army. It is used by 
Isaiah, chap. viii. 8, to describe the re- 
sistless entrance of the Assyrian army 
into Palestine; and here Nahum appro- 
priates the language for the purpose of 
describing the triumphant progress of 
the Medo-Babylonian troops when ad- 
vancing towards Nineveh. He not only 
beholds, in prophetic vision, their approach 
to the devoted city, but announces its 
complete destruction. It is usual with the 
prophets, as it is with the Oriental poets, 
when powerfully affected, to introduce 
into their discourse persons or objects as 
acting, without having previously named 
them. Sce on Is. xiii. 2; and comp. 
sj", ver. 11 of the present chapter. See 
Nordheimer’s Heb. Gram., § 867. They, 
as it were, take it for granted, that every 
one must, like themselves, clearly perceive 
the reference. On this principle there can 
be no difficulty in accounting for the fem- 
inine pronominal affix in mip, “ her 
place,” . e. the place of Nineveh, the 
“*9, city, or metropolis of Assyria, the 
overthrow of which the prophet was af- 
terwards to describe, and which he here 
merely touches upon by way of anticipa- 


tion. The use of ip, place, is not 
without emphasis. Comp. chap. iii. 17. 
Those who desire to see the difference of 
opinion existing both among ancient and 
modern writers respecting the actual site 
of Nineveh, may consult Bochart, Phaleg. 
lib. iv. cap, xx. Lucian, speaking of it, 
says, 7 Nivos uév dmrddAwdrev Hdn, Kat ovdty 
txvos 7 t Acurdy adrijs, odd’ ay elaxns Srov 
mor Hv. Dialog. entitled "Emioxoroirtes. 
Bochart, referring to the city of the name 
mentioned by Ammianus, expresses him-~ 
self thus: Merito dubitatur an restaurata 
fuerit eo in loco, in quo prius condita.” 
In the Hebrew MSS. there is no various 
reading of map; but the rendering of 
the LXX., robs émvryetpouevovs, and of 
Aq., avticrauévwv, supported by Theod. 
and the fifth Greek version, would indi- 
cate, that their authors read mp or 
mg%o"pna, in favor of which a2"% in 
the following hemistich might be ad- 
duced. The Syriac, however, Vulg., 
and Symm., read with the received 
text. 

9. By a sudden apostrophe Nahum 
here turns to the invaders, and boldly 
challenges them to account for their 
temerity in daring to oppose themselves 
to Jehovah. On which he repeats what 
he had declared in the preceding verse 
respecting the total destruction of the As- 
syrian power, and adds, for the special en- 
couragement of the Jews, that it should 
never annoy them again. The parallel 
to this brief apostrophe we have more 
at length, Is. xxxvii. 23-29. For the 
force of D-a38, twice, comp. MMS ESE 
5S made wb, 1 Sam. xxvi. 8. That the 
renewal of the affliction does not refer to 
any supposable future overthrow of the 
Assyrians, as Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, 
Hitzig, Ewald, and others maintain, but 
to any further calamity to be apprehended 


270 


NAHUM. 


Cuap. I.° 


10 For though they are closely interwoven as thorns, 
And thoroughly soaked with their wine, 
They shall be consumed like stubble fully dry. 


11 From thee he came forth, 


The deviser of mischief against. Jehovah, 


The wicked counsellor, 
12 Thus saith Jehovah: 


Though they are complete and so very numerous, 
Yet in this state they shall be cut down, . 


And he shall pass away : 


from them by the Jews, appears from ver, 
12 to be the true construction of the mean- 
ing. 

10. However strong and vigorous the 
Assyrian army might be, its complete 
destruction would easily be effected by 
Jehovah. 13, fo, even to, is here used as 
a comparative particle of degree: to the 
same degree as, or like thorns. Comp. 
1 Chron. iv. 27. Briers and thorns are 
employed by the prophets to denote the 
soldiers composing a hostile army. See 
Is, x. 17, xxvii. 4. The metaphor is 
here taken from a thicket of thorns, the 
prickly branches of which are so closely 
intertwined as to present an impenctra- 
ble front to those who would enter it. 
Such were the celebrated military pha- 
lanxes of antiquity, consisting of bodies 
of troops armed with long spears, and 
arranged in the form of a square. The 
other metaphor is taken from drunkards 
who drench or saturate themselves with 
wine, and denotes the degree of moisture 
which those thorny warriors possessed, 
and by which they were prepared to re- 
sist the action of fire. No account is to 
be made of the reading n'y, princes, 
which Newcome adopts from the Targ. 
and Syr. It is found in no Heb. MS. 
box, to eat, is often used to express con- 
sumption by fire. The application of the 
language of this and the preceding verse 
to the literal inundation of the Tigris, 
the drunkenness of the Assyrian camp, 
and the burning of the palace, etc., at 
Nineveh by Sardanapalus, as related by 


Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii,, is not justified. 


either by the import and usage of the 
terms, or by chronology, the catastrophe 
described by Nahum not having taken 
place till long after the time of that 
monarch, 

11. 1", from thee, O Nineveh! in the 
feminine. Sennacherib, whose machina- 
tions against Jehovah had been adverted 
to ver. 9, is here intended. The Heb, 
by2ba, frequently rendered in our com- 
mon version Belial, properly signifies 
worthlessness, inutikity, and by implica- 
tion, badness in a moral sense, wickedness. 
Hence the idiomatic combinations, p71 
byada, a man of Belial, a wicked man; 
ty-ba—42, a son of Belial, a bad man; 
tyoba-na, a daughter of Belial, a wicked 
woman. The word is compounded of 
"ba, without, and by», profit. 

12. Another description of the formid- 
able appearance of the hostile army, ac- 
companied with a prediction of its sud- 
den and complete annihilation, the flight 
of Sennacherib, and the future immunity 
of the Jews from an invasion on the part 
of the Assyrians. 253, complete, ex- 
presses the unbroken condition of the 
army of the enemy, and their being fully 
provided with everything requisite for 
the successful siege of Jerusalem. ‘The 
word may also be designed to convey the 
idea of mental completeness, 7. e. in this 
connection, security, martial courage. 
Thus Kimchi, +> "> = 73% 34h5? Nd 
ywa> misasn, they are not afraid of 
man, for they have subdued all the coun- 
tries, ‘=z, as used the second time, sig- 
nifies thus, so, in this state, as thus con- 





—— oe ie are ee eee re 


ae 
_ 


Pre oe 


Cuap. I. 


Though I have afflicted thee, 
I will afflict thee no more. 


NAHUM. 


271 


13 For now I will break his yoke from off thee, 


And burst thy bands asunder. 


14 And with respect to thee, Jehovah hath commanded : 
There shall no more be sown any of thy name; 
From the house of thy gods I will cut off the graven and the 


molten image ; 


stituted. The change of number from 
the plural 35732, “they are, or shall be 
cut down,” to “a, “/e passeth away,” 
is obviously intended to distinguish be- 
tween the overthrow of the Assyrian 
army, and the immediate departure of 
Sennacherib to his own land. The 
nominative to 129 is $y252 y3,i> in the 
preceding verse. 13, to ‘cut, or mow 
down, is a metaphor derived from the 
hay harvest, and forcibly sets forth the 
sudden and entire destruction of an army. 
See for the historical facts, 2 Kings xix. 
35; Is. xxxvii. 36, 37. At the close of 
the verse, Jehovah directs the discourse to 
his people, graciously assuring them that, 
though he had employed the Assyrian 
power to punish them, he would do so 
no more. Newcome, almost entirely on 
the authority of the LXX., improperly 
changes 34532 95] D°27 722 Cvedy oN 
a29" into 421 br3 92, Dian Bt bona Dx 
“23, 66 Though the Ruler of many waters 
has thus ravaged, and thus passed 
through.” That these ancient. transla- 
tors did, from hearing pws$w es read 
as Hg de%a, render, Kardpxwv bddtwv 
moAA@y, there can be no doubt; but 
then, they place the words in apposi- 
tion with rdde Aéye: Kdpios; and make 
the Lord, and not the king of Assyria, 
to be * the ruler of many waters.”’ The 
Syr. following the LXX., only changing 


the singular into the plural, has We 


oe F Ove 
Haw tis Oe) 3 “respecting the 
heads of many waters.” ‘jm2» is merely 
a defective reading of 4>n"2>, which is 
found in a number of MSS., and in some 


editions. The object of the verb is 
Judah, understood, which Jehovah here 
kindly addresses, and not Nineveh, as 
Michaelis and Hitzig suppose. The Jews 
are addressed as a female, as they are in 
the words 57"\72 medo- span mn an, 
Celebrate thy festivals, O Judah | ! perforne 
thy vows. Chap. ii. 1. On the introduc- 
tion of a predicate without previous men- 
tion of the subject, see on ver. 8. The 
meaning is, that the Jews were to be no 
more afflicted by the Assyrians, and not 
that Divine judgments were never af- 
terwards to be inflicted upon them by 
others. 

13. The suffix 3 has here the same 
reference as in the preceding verse, and 
nm in ania, “Ais yoke,” to the king of 
Assyria. Comp. Is. x. 27; Jer. ii. 20. 
For su", some think the LXX. and 
Vulg. read 2m 272, which is the reading 
of several MSS. ; but they both signify 
a staff or pole; only the former denotes 
what is placed on the neck, in order to 
bear a burden. 

14. We have here another apostrophe 
to the Assyrian monarch, announcing to 
him, that his dynasty should not be per- 
petuated, that his favorite idols should 
be destroyed, that the very temple in 
which he worshipped them should be- 
come his grave. When it is said, that 
«no more of thy name shall be sown,” 
the meaning is not, that none of his sons 
should succeed him in the government, 
but that his dynasty should cease on the 
arrival of the event predicted by Nahum, 
the destruction of Nineveh,, The Medes 
being great enemies to idolatry, those of 
them who composed the. army of Cyax- 


272 NAHUM. 


I will make it thy grave, 
Because thou art worthless. 


ares would take singular pleasure in des- 
troying the idols which they found in the 
chief temple at Nineveh. No mention 
is made in history of the sepulture of 
Sennacherib, but we are expressly told, 
2 Kings xix. 37, Is. xxxvii. 38, that he 
was slain by two of his sons while in the 
act of worship in the temple of Nisroch 
his god; and there can be no doubt that 
it is to this event reference is here made. 
r-ws stands elliptically for sa-yx, I 
will make it, i. e. the temple of thy gods, 


Cuap. II. 


thy grave. Some take n*>p, thou art 
light, in the same sense in which the 
Chaldee tym is used Dan. v. 27, but 
without sufficient ground in Hebrew 
usage. In application to persons it al- 
ways signifies to be the object of shame 
or disgrace. Though to be buried ina 
temple naturally conveys to our minds 
the idea of honorable interment, it is 
otherwise here, owing to the peculiar 
circumstances of the case. 








ee ee eee 





CHAPTER II. 


AFTER prophetically describing the joyful announcement of the overthrow of the Assyrian 
power, 1; and calling upon the Jews manfully to defend Jerusalem against the attack of 
Sennacherib, in the assurance that there would be a glorious restoration of the whole He- 
brew people, 2, 3; the prophet arrives at his main subject, the destruction of Nineveh, the 
siege and capture of which he portrays with graphic minuteness, and in the most sublime 
and vivid manner, 4-11. In a beautiful allegory he then, with triumphant sarcasm, asks 
where was now the residence of the once conquering and rapacious monarch? 12, 13; after 
which, Jehovah is introduced, expressly declaring that he would assuredly perform what 
he had inspired his servant to predict. 





1 Brenorp! upon the mountains are the feet of him that an- 
nounceth good, 
That publisheth peace : 
Celebrate thy feasts,O Judah! perform thy vows, 
For the wicked shall no more pass through thee ; 
He is entirely cut off. 


1. Some interpreters refer these words immediate connection to apply them to 
to the messengers which should arrive what took place on the miraculous 
from the East, announcing to the inhabi- deliverance of Jerusalem, recorded Is. 
tants of Judah the joyful intelligence of xxxvii. 36. They are almost identical, 
the destruction of Nineveh, which had so far as they go, with the language of 
been briefly hinted at in the course of Isaiah, chap. lii. 7, relative to the return 
the preceding chapter; but it better ac- from Babylon. During the Assyrian in- 
cords with the spirit and bearing of the vasion, the inhabitants of Judah were cut 








ee ea ee, ea ee ee ee ee eee 


Cuap, II. 


NAHUM. 


273 


2 ‘The disperser hath come up before thee ; 
Keep the fortress, watch the way, 


Make fast the loins, 


Strengthen thee with power to the utmost. 

8 For Jehovah will restore the excellency of Jacob, 
As he will the excellency of Israel ; 
Though the emptiers have emptied them, 


And destroyed their branches. 


4 The shield of his heroes is dyed red, 


off from all access to the metropolis ; 
now, they would be at liberty to proceed 
thither as usual, in order to observe their 
religious rites. 3253, Belial, doubtless 
means the same as $9252 ypi, wicked 
counsellor, chap. i. 11; ¢. e. as there ex- 
plained, Sennacherib. Restricted as the 
declaration here made must necessarily 
be to this monarch, the passage is no- 
wise at variance with the fact, that Ma- 
nasseh was for a time in the power of the 
Assyrians, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. 

2. Most moderns adopt the interpreta- 
tion of Jerome, who is of opinion, that the 
prophet here turns to Nineveh, and di- 
rects the attention of her monarch to the 
approach of the Medo-Babylonish army. 
I rather think with Abarbanel, Kimchi, 
Jarchi, Hezel, Dathe, and others, that 
the words are addressed to Hezekiah, and 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the 
purpose of inspiring them with courage 
to hold out during the Assyrian attack. 


y=, from yas. Arab. (ans, abiit, 


peregrinatus fuit, to scatter, disperse, 
properly signifies the Disperser, and is 
appropriately applied to the king of As- 
syria, by whose army the inhabitants of 
the different countries which it invaded 
were scattered from their abodes. Some 
prefer rendering the word by hammer, 
and compare Prov. xxv. 18, and Jer. 
li. 20, in the latter of which passages we 
have y=1a from ‘52, to break in pieces, 
disperse, etc., rendered in our common 
version buttle-axre. The address is beauti- 
fully abrupt, and derives great force from 
the use of the Infinitive instead of the 


35 


Imperative of all the four verbs which 
here occur. The fuller forms would be 
SEM “i52, FEST MEX, etc, mas vhs: 
form a paronomasia. 

3. Further to encourage the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem, a promise is here 
given of the restoration of the Hebrew 
people to their former independence and 
glory. aby: 7i8a, etc., is not to be in- 
terpreted of the pride of the Hebrews, 
nor of the proud and insulting conduct 
of their enemies towards them ; but, as 
in Ps. xlvii. 5 ; Amos vi. 8, it means the 
land of Canaan, as distinguished above 
all other countries. This land, as the 
prophet immediately adds, had been 
spoiled by the Assyrians, who had not 
only carried away the ten tribes into 
captivity, but taken the fortified cities 
of Judah; but it was again to be re- 
stored, partly on the destruction of the 
Assyrians, and completely on the return 
from Babylon. =, to return, has here 
the force of the Hiphil a°zn, ¢o restore, 
as in Numb. x. 36; Ps. lxxxyv. 5. Con- 
nected as this verb is with the future, 
implied in the abbreviated form =*"3, 
etc., in the preceding verse, it is to be 
rendered in this tense. Jacob and Israel 
are, as frequently, put for the people of 
the two kingdoms. The devastation ef- 
fected by the Assyrians is described by a 
metaphor taken from the pruning of 
vines, or the cutting off of the young 
twigs or shoots. Parallel to the promise. 
made in this verse is that given by Isaiah, 
chap. xxxvii. 31, 32. 

4, The prophet now proceeds to de- 
scribe the siege and capture of Nineveh, 


274 


NAHUM. 


CHap. IL 


The warriors are clothed with scarlet ; 
The chariots are furnished with fiery scythes, 


In the day of his preparation ; 


And the cypresses are brandished. 


which involved the downfall of the As- 
syrian empire. The formidable, terrific, 
and invincible appearance of the Me- 
do-Babylonish army is first noticed. 
amna, Ais heroes, i, e. the mighty 
men of Cyaxares. The suffix is the less 
frequent form, instead of 45, but repre- 
sents more of the primitive pronoun ssn, 
of which both are fragments. ty is 
the Pual participle of try, to be red; 
and is applied to the shields, to intimate 
that they were dyed red. The bull’s hide 
with which they were commonly covered 
was easily susceptible of this process ; 
and, on being anointed with oil, would 
shine brightly. See on Is. xxi. 6. This 
interpretaticn of the word, which is con- 
firmed by the meaning of the correspond- 
ing principle, in the following hemistich, 
is preferable to that which would make 
it express the idea of fiery, sparkling, or 
the like. ‘ Bloodstained is altogether 
to be rejected. The LXX. mistaking 
tase for cs, preposterously render 
Srda dSvvacrelas abtay e dvSpdrwr. 
corztnn, lit. are crimsoned, is a &mrat 
Aey-, but is the Pual participial form, 
and is evidently derived from >in, the 
name specially used to denote the coccus, 
or worm which was used in dying, to 
give to cloth a deep scarlet color. The 
manufacture of such stuffs was chiefly 
carried on by the Tyrians and Lydians. 
The LXX. have also mistaken this word 
for o9>$sn7, éural(ovras, in which they 
are followed by the Syr. Pollux describes 
the Medes as wearing a cloth called Sa- 
rages, which was of scarlet color, striped 
with white; Sapayns, Mndwv ti popnua, 
moppupous, mecodevkos xiTwy. Lib. i, 
cap. 18. mabe dxz, with fiery scythes. 
That nate stands here by transposition 
of the first two letters for rs£4, cannot 
be admitted ; the plural of s"5%, a Jamp, 
or torch, being always g°7"=%, in the 


masculine, so that the Syr., Targ., etc., 
give an erroneous interpretation. m1bs, 


tron, steel, Syr. pases the same, Com, 
Arab. dts, ‘eaudl, in partes conci- 
dit. ON pes ferrum durum, chalybs. 
die, e chalybe confectus, de gladio. 


For the manufactory of swords of the 


finest steel, not only Damascus but cer- | 


tain towns on the east of the Caucasus 
have long been celebrated ; and that this 
compound metal is of high antiquity, is 
universally allowed. Its name, Chalybs, 
is derived from the Chalybes, a people 
bordering on the Euxine sea. It is 
doubtless what the prophet Jeremiah 
means by i5u% biz, tron from the 
North, and which he distinguishes from 
$342, common tron, chap. xv. 12. Now 
there appears to be no part of the war- 
chariots entitled to the character of 
irons flashing with fire, but the falces or 
scythes, which were “ fixed at right 
angles to the axle, and turned down- 
wards, or inserted parallel to the axle 
into the felly of the wheel, so as to re- 
volve, when the chariot was put in mo- 
tion, with thrice the velocity of the 
chariot itself; and sometimes also pro- 
jecting from the extremities of the axle.” 
Dr. William Smith’s Dict. of Greek and 
Roman Antiquities, art. Falz. The ép- 
para dperavnpdpa were justly reckoned 
among the most terrific implements of 
ancient warfare, as they mowed down 
all that came in their way. The ts fire 
of these scythes was the coruscations pro- 
duced by their excessive brightness and 
the rapidity of their motion. Instead of 
x2, “with fire,” seven MSS., origin- 
ally one more, and the Soncin. edition 
of the Prophets, read Jx> “dike fire.” 
The suffix in \2">5 may either form an 











ee ee re 





— 





a ae 


SS 


ee ee a ee 


>. .-*" 


ee a ee | 





RR ere aa mi me 


Cuap. II. 


NAHUM. 


2795 


5 The chariots dash madly on the commons, 
They run furiously in the open places ; 
Their appearance is like that of torches, 


They flash like lightnings. 
6 He remembers his nobles; 
They stumble in their march ; 


accusative to 35%, or the genitive of an 
agent not mentioned —the hostile com- 
mander. The latter construction is pre- 
ferable, as it refers the day of his pre- 
paration to the period fixed upon by the 
general for commencing the attack. It 
would only be then that the scythes 
would be fixed in the chariots: it being 
not only useless but dangerous to have 
them attached at other times. By 
Dm wins, cypresses, are meant spears or 
lances, the staves of which were made of 
the branches of the cypress: The LXX., 
followed by the Syr. and Arab., have 
taken the word for px3 5, horsemen, 
rendering it of imme?s, which Michaelis 
is inclined to prefer, and Newcome has 
actually adopted. There is, however, no 
just cause for stumbling at the boldness 
of the figure. Homer, describing the 
spear of Achilles, calls it an ash : 


"Ex & tpa ovpryyos matpdiov éomdoar’ 
| &yxos, 

Bost péya otiBapdéys to pev ov Suvar’ 
&AAos *Axai@v 

TldAAew, BAAG pev olos éxloraro mhAat 
"AxiAAeds, 

TInArdda MEAIHN, xk. 7. A. 

Iliad, xix, 387—390. 


Hesiod also designates the lance éAdrn, 
a pine, Scut. Herc. 188; and Virgil uses 
the fir for the spear of Camilla : 


—_—— “‘ cujus apertum 
Adversi longa transverberat abiete pec- 
tus.” JEneid, xi. 667. 


sbyan, a drat Aey., from the root by, 
Syr. QS, tremuit, to move tremu- 


lously, wave, shake; hence +¥4 and 
nizan, trembling, Zech. xii. 2; Ps, Ix. 
5. The reference seems to be to the cus- 


tom of the spear-men to wave their lances 
before engaging in battle, for the pur- 
pose of evincing their eagerness for the 
contest. 

5. This verse Ewald explains of the 
preparations made by the Ninevites for 
the defence of the city; but the war- 
chariots could not be used within the | 
walls : they could only be effective in the 
open field. m4s:h signifies not merely 
streets, as being without the houses of a 
city, but also the oué fields or commons 
without the city itself. Comp. Job v. 10; 
Ps. exliv. 13; Prov. viii. 26. In like 
manner minh, as its parallel, denotes 
any wide or open spaces ih the suburbs 
without the gates. Comp. 2 Chron, 
xxxii.6; Ps, exliv. 14. tbinnn signi- 
fies to act the part of a madman, to show 
one’s self violent, rage, and the like. The 
reduplicate form j;pe7ms" is obviously 
intended to give great force to the ex- 
pression ; on which account, to render 
it run up and down is too weak. I have 
added furiously, which makes this hemi- 
stich better agree with the preceding. 
Nor is the reduplication of the third 
radical of 4yam, fo run, in Piel, sxx i-4, 
without a corresponding degree of energy. 
It expresses the rapid zig-zag course of 
the chariots, resembling: the quick flash- 
ing of lightning. As 35% is masculine, 
the feminine suffix in Tae erel must be 
taken for a neuter, or regarded as an in- 
stance of neglected gender. 

6. The king of Nineveh is here repre- 
sented as roused from a profound stupor ; 
and, contriving the necessary means of 
defence, as first of all turning his atten- 
tion to his principal officers, whom he 
summons to their posts. Michaelis, 
Maurer, and others, think that by these 


276 


They hasten to her wall, 
And the defence is prepared. 
7 The flood-gates are opened, 
And the place is dissolved, 
Though firmly established. 


NAHUM. 


Cuap. II. 


8 She is made bare; she is carried up, 
While her handmaids moan like doves, 


And smite upon their hearts, 


officers, the generals commanding in the 
provinces are intended; but it is more 
- likely the prophet means the military 
leaders within the city, since it is repre- 
sented in the preceding verses as already 
invested by the enemy; and they are 
spoken of as hastening to the wall, and 
not to the city, which the former inter- 
pretation would require, 27 is here used, 
not in the sense of simply recollecting, 
or calling to mind, but with the acces- 
sory idea of carrying out or giving effect 
to the recollection, in regard to the object 
of remembrante. It therefore implies, 
that the monarch ordered them to oc- 
cupy each his place in the defence of 
Nineveh. On receiving the orders, they 
make such haste, that they and their 
troops stumble whilé marching to the 
walls. Instead of # in Hrvain, eight of 
De Rossi’s MSS., another originally, the 
Brixian, and another ancient edition, ex- 
hibit the local =, which is supported by 
the Targ., Syr., and Arab. By the 728, 
protector, or protection, here mentioned, 
some understand the vinea, or the tes- 
tudo, military coverings used by the be- 
siegers of a city, under the shelter of 
‘which they might safely carry on their 
operations in undermining, or otherwise 
destroying the walls. As, however, the 
term is here applied to something em- 
ployed by those who acted on the defen- 
sive, it cannot be so interpreted. In all 
probability, some kind of breastwork, 
composed of the interwoven boughs and 
branches of trees, erected between the 
towers upon the walls, is intended, Ac- 
cording to Diodorus Siculus, Nineveh had 
fifteen hundred towers, each of which 


was two hundred feet high. y=o“sig- 
nifies to weave, intertwine, fence, and the 
like, and so to protect, shelter. LXX. rad 
éroyudoovet Tas TpopuAakads avTay. Syr. 


jAdas: fortifications, Targ. x°>73%, 
towers. 

7. Though it is not unusual in He- 
brew to represent invading armies or 
multitudes of people under the image of 
floods or waters, an interpretation adopted 
here by Rosenmiiller, De Wette, and 
others, there does not appear to be suf- 
ficient ground to depart from the literal 
meaning. By ninn:, rivers, or streams, 
are meant the canals dug from the Tigris, 
which intersected the city, and more es- 
pecially those which afforded a supply 
of water for the defence of the palace. 
The gates or sluices of these canals were 
doubtless strongly constructed, to prevent 
a greater influx of water than what was 
required ; but having upon the present 
occasion been burst open by the besiegers, 
the waters of the Tigris rushed in, and, 
completely inundating the royal resi- 
dence, dissolved and ruined it. The 
verb 34753 describes the physical effects 
of the inundation, not metaphorically 
those produced by the event upon the 
minds of the inhabitants. 

8. 2um has occasioned a great diver- 
sity of interpretations. Gesenius, dissat- 
isfied with all those derived from its be- 
ing the Hophal of 2:3, to place, settle, fix, 
has recourse to a new root, 22%, which 


he borrows from the Arab. 4d, flusit, 
stillavit, aqua, 3 2, fudit, effudit ; and, 














a a 








eS ee 
7) 


Cuap. II. 


NAHUM. 


277 


9 Though Nineveh hath been like a pool of water, 


From the most ancient time, 
Yet they are fleeing : 


“Stop! stop!” but none looketh back. 


There js no end to the store ; 


10 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold ; 


There is abundance of all covetable vessels. 
11 Emptiness and emptiedness and void, 

Heart-melting and tottering of knees ; 

There is intense pain in all loins, 

And all faces withdraw their color. 


then removing the word to the end of the 


preceding verse, reads thus, 5512 $s°nn 
BET the palace is dissolved and made to 
flow away. That the verbi is to be con- 
nected with the preceding 5° a2 the gen- 
der at once shows ; but there is no neces- 
sity of departing from the usual signifi- 
eation of 2:2, to place, fix, stand firmly ; 
in Hiph. to cause to stand, establish. 
However strongly the place might have 
been constructed, it would not be able to 
resist the fury of the water. 4 has here 
the force of though, and though. Comp. 
FP Ny Mal. iii. 14. The nom- 
inative to the feminines =n BB and mntsn 
is Nineveh understood. The first of these 
verbs some render, ts carried into cap- 
tivity ; but this signification is confined 
to the Kal and Hiphil conjugations. It 
here describes the ignominy with which 
the Ninevites were treated, when, stripped 
of everything, they were forced from their 
capital. Comp. Is. xlvii. 3, Nineveh is 
represented as a queen degraded from 
her dignity ; and led away captive by 
the enemy ; her female slaves following 
and deploring her fate. That the queen 
of Nineveh herself, supposed to be here 
called Huzzab, is intended, in a position 
which cannot be sustained, though adopt- 
ed by several interpreters, and recently 
by Ewald. Persons are never introduced 
by name into prophecy, except for some 
important purpose, as # the case of Cy- 
rus. For 37:2, to pant, sigh, moan, comp. 


the Arab. ee graviter, continuo an- 


helavit, viz interrupto spiritu ; Syriac 


Sy 
si. ii 

9. The comparison of the population 
of Nineveh to a collection of water is 
here appropriate. sr ‘2% is an anti- 
quated mode of expressing the feminine 
pronominal affix —the absolute form of 
the pronoun being retained instead of the 
fragmental = being attached to the noun, 
Sm Matawan; lit. from her days, 
z. e. during the whole period of her ex- 
istence, or, from the most ancient time. 
The prophet compares the royal city to 
a reservoir of water, on account of the 
confluence of people from the surround- 
ing provinces. All who could make 
their escape, now took to flight, and no 
entreaties could induce them to remain. 

10. Nahum here apostrophizes the 
victorious enemy. They had now only 
to possess themselves of the immense 
riches which had been abandoned by the 
inhabitants, or which they might plunder 
at pleasure. The repetition of the verb 
nt2 gives force to the diction. M3IDN, 
from 4:2, in Hiphil, to set up, prepare ; 
anything laid up, prepared, and ready for 
use, as costly garments, ornaments, etc. 
Comp. Job xxvii.16. LXX. rod «écpov 
abriis. Vulg. divitiarum. Targ. Noein. 
treasures, 12>, followed by 72, is here 
a nominative absolute : as for the abund- 
ance, it consists of, etc. 

11. The three synonymes mp 23% -P92 
-Sa%, all from roots signifying to 


clamavit, rugiit. 


—_ 
rR, 


278 


12 


NAHUM. 


Cuap. III. 


Where is the den of the lionesses ? 


And the feeding-place of the young lions ? 

Where the lion and the lioness walked, 

The lion’s cub also, and none disturbed them. 
13 The lion tore for the supply of his cubs, 

And strangled for his lionesses ; 


He filled his dens with prey, 


And his habitations with rapine. 


14 


Behold! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts; 


I will burn her chariots into smoke ; 

The sword shall devour thy young lions, 

And I will cut off thy prey from the land: 

The voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more, 


empty, empty out, are exquisitely chosen, 
and from their increase in length, as well 
as from their similarity both in sound and 
meaning, give great force to the expres- 
sion of total desolation —the idea here 
intended to be conveyed. Gesenius con- 
siders them to be onomatopoetic, imitat- 
ing the sound of emptying out a bottle. 
Comp. Is. xxiv. 1, for the etymology of 
the verbs -pa—pa2 and ¢ba; and for 
a similar use of words varied in form, 
but nearly alike in sound, Is. xxiv, 3, 4, 
xxix. 2; Ezek. xxxiii 29; Zeph. i. 15. 
mintn,an intensive form, from sh, 
to be in pain. For “ANNE see on Joel 
ii. 6. 

12-14. A beautiful allegory, setting 
forth the rapacious, irresistible, and lux- 
urious character of the king of Assyria, 
and the destruction of Nineveh, the seat 
of his empire, with all his armies, and 


their means of supply. In the last verse 
the literal is intermixed with the figura- 
tive. Comp. for the metaphor, Is. v. 29; 


Jer. ii. 15. san, in ver. 12, has the force 


of that which ; 7, ver. 13, @ sufficiency, 
supply, etc. o> and mE we are em- 
ployed idiomatically in the two genders 
to express different kinds of prey. Comp. 
Is. iii, 1. For 423 the Targ. has 
NANI, with fire. The meaning is, that 
such should be the number of chariots 
consumed, that the smoke arising from 
the fire in which they were to be burnt, 
should be visible to all. Comp. Ps, 
xxxvii. 20. The MSS. and editions dif- 
fer in their punctuation of mesnbv, but 
there can be little doubt that it is a de- 
fective reading, ->5xb02, for mo-pxdr. 
Comp. MDED, Ps. exxxix. 5. The Syr. 
and LXX. have read q"hosbx, “ thy 
wor 





CHAPTER III. 


THE prophet, resuming his description of the siege of Nineveh, 1-3, traces it to her idolatry 
as its cause, 4, and repeats the divine denunciations which he had introduced chap. ii. 18, 
ver. 5-7. He then, to aggravate her misery, points her to the once formidable and cele- 
brated, but now conquered and desolate Thebes, 8-10, declaring that such should likewise 








ee ET 


vee ir 


Fee ers 


ee se ee ee ee 


ee ne eS ee ee ee es 


Cuapr. III. 


NAHUM. 


279 


be her fate, 11-18; calls upon her sarcastically to make every preparation for her defence, 
but assuring her that it would be of no avail, 14, 15; and concludes by contrasting with 
the number of merchants, princes, and generals, which she once possessed, the miserable, 
remediless state of ruin to which she was to be reduced, 16-19. 





1 Wo to the city of blood! 


She is wholly filled with deceit and violence ; : 


The prey is not removed. 


2 The sound of the whip, and the sound of the rattling of the 


wheels, 


The horses prancing, and the chariots bounding ; ; 
3 The mounting of horsemen, the gleaming of swords, 


And the lightning of spears ; 
The multitude of slain, 
And the mass of corpses ; 


There is no end to the carcasses ; 
They stumble over their carcasses : 

4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot, 
The very graceful mistress of enchantments ; 


1. A portraiture of the atrocious char- 
acter of the Ninevites. p= tmz form 
an asyndeton. The eon oal of the 
prey refers to the fact, that the Assyrians 
had not restored the ten tribes. 

2,3. The description which the prophet 
here gives of the approach of the enemy, 
his attack on the city, and the slaughter 
of the besieged, is exquisitely graphic. 
Every translator must acknowledge with 
Jerome: “Tam pulchra juxta Hebraicum 
et pictura similis ad proelium se prepar- 
antis exercitus descriptio est, ut omnis 
meus sermo sit vilior.” The passage is 
unrivalled by any other, either in sacred 
or profane literature. Comp. however 
Jer. xlvii, 3. “m= occurs only here, but 
in Judges v. 22, we find 728 nian, 
the charges of his mighty warriors, in 
connection with oxo, the war-horse. It 
would seem to have some affinity to the 


“f= 


Arab, c 75, celeriter incessit, and 


expresses the coursing or prancing of the 
cavalary, when rapidly advancing to the 
attack. Their eagerness the LXX. ex- 


presses by rendering it didKovros. Syr. 
Vv 
j-23, ebullivit, anhelavit. D. Kimchi; 


Srosbai ida osm rows, the power- 
Sul “trampling or prancing of the horse 
and his course. 'The collectives require 
to be rendered in the plural. 7p is not 
to be understood as repeated before D:0 
and the following substantive. Instead 
of sbvp> or :525%, as it is read in some 
of the old editions, the Keri, many MSS., 
and the Soncin., Brix., and Complut. 
editions, read 3351, which is favored by 
the renderings of the LXX. and Vulg. 

4. The idolatrous practices of the Nine- 
vites, and the means which they em- 
ployed to seduce others to worship their 
gods, are here represented as the princi- 
pal cause of their destruction. At the 
same time, the commerce, luxury, ete, 
which they carried to the greatest height, 
are not to be excluded; for in making 
contracts and treaties with the more 
powerful of their neighbors, they not 
only employed these as inducements, but 
did not scruple to deliver into their 
power, nations and tribes that were un- 


280 


NAHUM. 


Cuap. IIL. 


Who sold nations through her fornications, 
And tribes through her enchantments. 
5 Behold! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts: 
I will throw up thy skirts upon thy face, 
And show the nations thy nakedness, 


And the kingdoms thy shame. 


6 I will cast abominable things upon thee, 


And disgrace thee ; 


And will make thee a gazing-stock. 
7 And every one that seeth thee shall flee from thee 
And shall say, Nineveh is destroyed ! 


Who will commiserate her ? 


Whence shall I seek comforters for thee ? 
8 Art thou better than No-Ammon, 


That dwelt in the rivers, 
That had water around her ; 


able to defend themselves. Comp. Joel 
iii. 3, 6-8 ; Amos i. 6. The metaphor of 
an unchaste female, and the seductive 
arts which she employs, is not unfre- 
quent in the prophets. 

5,6. The language of commination 
here used, is suggested by the metaphor 
of an harlot, employed in the preceding 
verse. It would seem to refer to an an- 
cient mode of punishing strumpets, by 
stripping them of all their gaudy attire, 
and exposing them, covered with mud 
and filth, to the gaze of insulting spec- 
tators. The abhorrent character of the 
figure constitutes the very reason of its 
selection. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 37-41, 
The 5 in "x42 is the Caph veritatis. 
LXX. eis mapdderyya. 

7. W7N- carries out the idea implied 
in »s4, ver. 6. It is in the plural, but 
is followed by a singular verb, to agree 
with $5. Comp. for the sentiment Is. 
G19... 


8. j472%8 8b, No Amon, Egyp. HOZ 


AMLOX WN, te lion, or portion of 


Amon, thus etymologically the LXX, 
ueplda, "Aupév, though in Ezek. xxx. 15, 
they render Acéomodus, t. e. the residence 


or possession of the Egyptian deity known 
by the name of Jupiter Ammon. The 
statement of Macrobius, that he was the 
representative of the sun, is confirmed 
by the name of Amon-Re, i.e. ‘* Amon, 
the Sun,’’ being given to him in Egyp- 
tian inscriptions. On Egyptian monu- 
ments this god is represented by the 
figure of a man sitting upon a chair, 
with a ram’s head, or by that of an 
entire ram. In Jer. xlvi. 25, we have 
na ji, Amon of No, where, as well 
as in the present passage in Nahum, our 
translators have regarded }*7a~ as equiy- 
alent to jin, @ multitude. Bochart, 
Schroeder, and some others, have con- 
tended that A:dowodis, near Mendes, 
in Lower Egypt, is intended, but all 
the later commentators are in favor of 
Thebes. The Targum preposterously ren- 
ders, NN27 829720258, Alexandria the 
Great, which “Jerome, deferring to his 
Rabbi, has adopted in the Vulg. The 
city, which from its being the principal 
seat of his worship, was called by the 
Greeks A:éororus, is the celebrated Thebes, 
the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, sit- 
uated on both sides of the Nile, about 
two hundred and sixty miles south of 
Cairo. It was renowned for its hundred 





es ae 


—; 


a eo Pa 


ae ee oe ee or al 


a eee re ee ee 


Cuap. III. 


NAHUM. 


281 


Whose strength was in the sea ; 


Her wall was on the sea ? 


9 Cush strengthened her, and Egypt, 


With countless hosts ; 


Put and the Lybians were thine auxiliaries, 


gates, and was of such extent, that its is made in profane history, but it not 


remaining ruins still describe a circuit of 
twenty-seven miles : 


ovd’ doa OnBas 

Aiyurtias, 63: wAciota, Sduois ev KTHpaTE 
KEIT QL, 

Al & éxardumvaol eiot, Sinndcion 8 ay” 
éExdoTny 

*Avépes. eEorxvedor obv immoow Kal otxeo- 
pu. Iliad, ix. 381. 





Of the magnificent ruins, the most re- 
markable are the temples of Luxor and 
Karnac, on the eastern side of the river. 
The architecture is of the most gigantic 
and superior description. Fragments of 
colossal obelisks and statues are found in 
every direction. ‘The stupendous colon- 
ade at Luxor is in the highest degree 
imposing ; but the grand hall of the 
temple at Karnac is of surpassing inter- 
est. Wilkinson, in his Thebes, p. 174, 
describes it as ‘one hundred and seventy 
feet by three hundred and twenty-nine, 
supported, by a central avenue of twelve 
massive columns, sixty-six feet high, 
(without the pedestal and abacus,) and 
twelve in diameter, besides one hun- 
dred and twenty-two of smaller or rather 
less gigantic dimensions, forty-one feet 
nine inches in height, and twenty-seven 
feet six inches in circumference, distri- 
buted in seven lines on either side of the 
former.” 'The walls of the temples are 
covered with hieroglyphics, chiefly re- 
presenting the victories gained by the 
Egyptian kings over their enemies. One 
of the walls exhibits the result of the ex- 
pedition of Shishak against Jerusalem, 
1 Kings xiv. 25, etc. ; 2 Chron. xii. 2-9, 
in the leading away of the Jewish cap- 
tives. 

Of the conquest of this famous city, 
here referred to by Nahum, no mention 


improbably took place on the advance 
of the Assyrian army under Sargon, in 
the year B. c. 714. SeeonIs.xx. It was 
afterwards taken by Cambyses, 3. c. 525, 
and its ruin completed by Ptolemy La- 
thyrus, B. c. 81. According to the re- 
presentation of our prophet, Nineveh, 
could not vie with it either in point of 
grandeur or of strength. They both 
possessed the advantage of mighty rivers 
for their defence — a circumstance to 
which he gives a special prominence, as 
it was that on which the inhabitants 
placed great dependence. By b®, sea, is 
meant the Nile; see on Is. xix. 5; by 
= ale Sy streams, the same as ni5713, Nah. 
ii. 7, viz. the canals by which the water 
of the river was carried round or through 
the principal parts of the city. Ewald 
proposes to connect 0? with b>, thus, 
pont, and renders from sea to sea, which 
he attempts to justify by appealing to 
Micah vii. 12, but the cases are not pa- 
rallel. > stands elliptically for mbon. 
The preposition % in 62% expresses “the 
material out of which the defence was 
made; and the triple reference to the 
Nile as a sea, in this verse, indicates the 
great importance which attached to it as 
a means of protecting the city. 

9. Not only was Thebes strong by 
nature and art, and in the number of her 
native troops ; she also possessed immense 
military resources in her African auxil- 
ilaries. For 35, Cush, see on Is. xi. 


ll. wip, Put, Egypt PAIAT 
the region immediately to the west of 
Lower Egypt, and conterminous with 
Lybia Proper, with the inhabitants of 
which, it is here mentioned. Gesenius de- 


rives the name from JI\"F or MIT, 


36 


282 


10 Yet she became an exile, 
She went into captivity ; 


NAHUM. 


Cuapr. III. 


Her young children also were dashed in pieces, 


At the top of all the streets ; 


They cast lots for her honorable men, 
And all her great men were bound with chains. 


11 
Thou shalt hide thyself, 


Thou also shalt be drunken, 


Thou also shalt seek a refuge from the enemy. 
12 All thy fortresses are like fig-trees with early figs ; 
If they shake them, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 
13 Behold! thy people are as women in the midst of thee ; 
The gates of thy land shall be thrown wide open to thine 


enemies ; 


Fire shall consume thy barriers, 


14 Draw water for the siege ; 


a bow, and thinks the people were so 
called from their being expert as archers. 
That they were descended from Ham, 
see Gen. x. 6. Josephus speaks of them 
as Mauritanians, Antiqq. i. 6, 2; and 
the river of the same name, which he de- 
scribes as flowing through their country, 
is called Fut by Pliny, v. 1, and Phtuth 
by Ptolemy, iv. 1. They are spoken of 
as forming part of the Eg syptian army, 
Jer. xlvi. 9, and as being in the Syrian 
marine, Ezek. xxvii. 10. Winer’s Real 
W. B. ii. p. 308. tab, Lybdians, the 
inhabitants of Africa to the south and 
west of the former country, stretching 
as far as Numidia. Hitzig, on Is. lxvi. 19, 
has endeavored in vain to establish the 
hypothesis that the people of Nubia are 
meant. Comp. 2 Chron. xii. 3, xvi. 8. 
cs, Egypt, is here taken for Lower 
Egypt, as distinguished from the Upper, 
of which Thebes was itself the capital. 
There is no reason, with some, to change 


the 5 in yn71¥3 into =, though the” 


LXX. and Syr. have the third person. 
The prophet concludes his description by 
apostrophizing Thebes. 2 is the Beth 
essentia. : 

10, 11. If the celebrated metropolis 
of Egypt, with all its means of defence, 


was captured, and its inhabitants sub- 
jected to all the cruelities and indignities 
usually inflicted by the victors, what was 
there in Nineveh to claim exemption ? 
Instead of “25, to drink, be intoxicated, 
a mode of speech not uncommon in the 
prophets, denoting participation in severe 
punishment, Newcome, without author- 
ity, reads ->'x, to hire, and renders, thou 
shalt become an hireling. In 1 Sam. ii. 
5, to which he refers, the latter, and not 
the former verb, occurs. 

12, 13. Two figures strikingly expres- 
sive of the extreme ease with which the 
Assyrians should be subdued. For the 
former, see on Is. xxviii. 4; and comp. 
Rev. vi. 13; for the latter, Is. xix. 16; 
Jer. 1.37. ty, with, in the phrase Dzsn 
mo D2 py denotes accompaniment, ete. j 
the phrase itself is equivalent to C*:sn 
pesca ond oy. Thus the LXX. 
cvkat oxomovs txovres. Comp. for this 
rare use of the preposition, 1 Sam. xvii. 
42. "mo 2, Michaelis translates thy 
fugitives, but as fugitives are always re- 
presented as perishing by the sword, and 
never by fire, the signification barriers 
must be retained. 

14. The- prophet ironically summons 
the Ninevites to make every effort in 





Cuap. III. 


Strengthen thy fortifications ; 


NAHUM. 


283 


Enter the mire, and tread the clay ; 


Repair the brick-kiln. 


15 There shall the fire consume thee, 


The sword shall cut thee off; 


It shall consume thee like the licking locust ; 
Be thou numerous as the licking locusts ; 
Be thou numerous as the swarming locusts, 
16 Thou hast increased thy merchants more than the stars of 


heaven ; 


The licking locusts spread themselves out, 


And took their flight. 


17 Thy princes were as the swarming locusts, 
And thy satraps as the largest locusts ; 
That encamp in the hedges in the cold day ; 
The sun ariseth, then they flee, 

And the place where they are is unknown. 

18 Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria ! 


the way of preparing for a long and 
vigorous defence of the metropolis itself. 
As water is one of the first necessaries, 
it behooved them to see to it, that the 
cisterns, etc., were well filled. They 
were also to put the fortifications in a 
perfect state. 

15-17. 03, there, points emphatically 
to the fortified city. ‘The nominative to 
73227 is Ee Senet noun ty, sei 
die feminine ="» city Y, eitaietht’ te 
stead, however, of "=2nn, six MSS., 
originally four a and one by correc- 

masnn For the names of 
the locusts which hws occur, see on Joel 
i. 4, and Amos vii. 1. The reduplication 
"2'5 243, locust of locusts, is designed to 
express the largest or most formidable of 
that kind of insect. For the plural form 
"aia, see on Amos vii. 1. t 412% is a 
drat Acy., derived from “43, to consecrate, 
separate and devote to a high or noble 
office ; hence ="+2, prince, “33, consecra- 
tion, diadem. It denotes here the princes, 
crowned with diadems, who formed the 
glory of the Assyrian court. Thus Kim- 
chi: Emowan $9 Hwy ATs AWN Maw, 


«Princes with diadems and crowns on 
their heads.” The Arab. .Uio, moni- 


tor, 7. e. counsellor, is less apt, as the 
comparison to the locusts shows. Six of 
De Rossi’s MSS. and three ancient edi- 
tions omit the Dagesh in the Nun. The 
parallel term Ex b£v occurs only ati 
and in Jer. li. 27, in the singular MEED 
It is obviously a foreign word, and is in 
all probability compounded of what we 
still find in the Persic, sls, or GL, 
strength, power, and , chief, captain, 
prince. It occurs in the Targum of 
Jonathan, Deut. xxviii. 12, as the name 
of a superior angel. For other deriva- 
tions see Gesen, Thesaur. in voc. Dr. 
Lee prefers deriving it from the Chald. 
nv, egregius, and “wv, dux. Whatever 
might be the power of these princes and 
generals, and whatever number of troops 
they might have at their command, they 
would on the approach of the enemy, 
betake themselves to flight, and leave 
Nineveh to her own defence. No trace 
of them would be found. 

18. The masculine suffixes in this and 


284 


Thy nobles have lain down ; 


NAHUM. 


Cuap. III. 


Thy people are dispersed upon the mountains, 
And there is none that collected them. 
19 There is no alleviation of thy ruin; 


Thy wound is grievous ; 


All that hear the report of thee 


Shall clap their hands at thee, 


For upon whom did not thy wickedness unceasingly pass ? 


the following verse, refer to the king of 
Assyria. The o>94, shepherds, were the 
satraps or viceroys appointed to govern 
the provinces under the king of Assyria ; 
the <o-n""s were the nobles, who as 
parallel with the n»y4, are to be regarded 
under the same image. See Jer. xxv. 34, 
where principals would have been better 
than principal in our common version. 
428, corresponding to 2123, they slumber, 
is a vox pregnans, implying, not only 
that they had lain down, but that they 
were taking rest or were asleep. w:5 is 
cognate with 45, to scatter, disperse, 


Arab. Lins, propagata et multiplicata 
sunt pecora, but is not to be substituted 


for it, as some propose. Comp. the Arab. 
rts, pastum noctu incesserunt cameli 


aut oves sine pastore. The figure is car- 
ried on throughout the verse. 

19. md, PR; lit. nothing of infirmity, 
by litotes, for powerful, great is thy 
breach. The deliverance of the king 
of Nineveh was utterly hopeless. Noth- 
ing remained but for the prophet to an- 
nounce his end, and the joy which the 
surrounding states would express at the 
irretrievable ruin of an empire, whose 
iron sway had been so extended, and 
whose cruel oppressions had been unin- 
termitting. 


HABAKKUK. 





PREFACE. 


Or the prophet Habakkuk, we possess no information but what is purely 
apocryphal. The position of Delitzsch, founded upon the subscription, chap. 
iii. 19, that he was of the tribe of Levi, and engaged in the temple service, 
is too precarious to warrant its adoption. The statement made in the inserip- 
tion to Bel and the Dragon in the LXX., which has been preserved from the 
Tetrapla of Origen, in the Codex Chisianus, é« mpopnrelas "AuBaxod viod *In- 
god ek Tis dvAjjs Aevl, may be nothing more than conjecture. Considerable 
difference of opinion obtains respecting the time at which he flourished — 
the Rabbins; Grotius, Kalinsky, Kofod, Jahn, and Wahl, placing him in the 
first years of Manasseh; Friedrich, De Wette, Bertholdt, Justi, and Wolf, in 
the period of the exile; while Usher, Newcome, Eichhorn, Horne, Winer, 
Maurer, and Ewald, are of opinion that he prophesied in the reign of 
Jehoiachin, about 608—604 before Christ. This last hypothesis seems best 
supported, since the Chaldeans are spoken of chap. i. 5, 6, as being upon 
the point of invading Judah, but not as having actually entered it. The 
position of Rosenmiiller, that chap. i. was composed under Jehoiakim, chap. 
_ ji, under Jehoiachin, and chap. iii. under Zedekiah, is altogether gratuit- 
ous. The whole forms one prophecy, and does not admit of being thus dis- 
sected. | 

The book embraces the wickedness of the Jews which demanded the inflic- 
tion of punishment, the infliction of this punishment by the Chaldeans, the 
destruction of the latter in their turn, and an ode composed by the prophet 
in anticipation of the consequent deliverance of his people. Its position im- 
mediately after Nahum is most appropriate, setting forth the judgments of 
God inflicted by and upon the Chaldeans, just as the latter treated of those 
to be inflicted upon the Assyrians. The two prophets take up separately 
what Isaiah had expatiated upon at large. 

In point of general style, Habakkuk is universally allowed to occupy a 
very distinguished place among the Hebrew prophets, and is surpassed by 
none of them in dignity and sublimity. Whatever he may occasionally have 
in common with previous writers, he works up in his own peculiar manner, 
and is evidently no servile copyist or imitator. His figures are well chosen, 
and fully carried out. His expressions are bold and animated ; his descrip- 
tions graphic and pointed. The parallelisms are for the most part regular 
and complete. The lyric ode contained in chap. iii. is justly esteemed one 
of the most: splendid and magnificent within the whole compass of Hebrew 
poetry. See the introduction to that chapter. 

The words max, i. 9 v-33, ii. 6, and y4dp77, ii. 16, are peculiar to this 
prophet. 


CHAPTER I. 


THE prophet commences by briefly, yet emphatically and pathetically, setting forth the 
cause of the Chaldean invasion, which was to form the burden of his prophecy — the 
great wickedness which abounded in the Jewish nation at the time he flourished, 2-4. 
He then introduces Jehovah summoning attention to that invasion as the awful punish- 
ment of such wickedness, 5; describes, in a very graphic manner, the appearance, char- 
acter, and operations of the invaders, 6-11; and then, by a sudden transition, expostu- 
lates with God, on account of the severity of the judgment, which threatened the anni- 


hilation of the Jewish people, 12-17. 





1 Tue Sentence, which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 

2 How long shall I cry, O Jehovah! And thou hearest not ? 
How long shall I cry to thee of violence, and thou savest not ? 

3 Why dost thou permit me to see wickedness, 


And beholdest misery ? 


1. For the signification of nwa, see on 
Is, xiii. 1; and for the form PiP2n, com- 
pare "3520, Jer. v. 30, xxiii. 14. 

2. The evils complained of in this and 
the two following verses, are, by many 
interpreters, considered to be those con- 
sequent upon the invasion of Judea by 
the Chaldeans. Such a construction, 
however, breaks up the symmetry of 
the connection, as marked by ver. 5, and 
leaves out of view the wickedness of the 
Jews as the cause of the calamity, con- 
trary to the universal custom of the He- 
brew prophets. They were the intestine 
broils, litigations, and acts of oppression, 
which sprang up in the kingdom of Ju- 
dah, after the death of the pious reformer 
Josiah, and had been long the subject of 
complaint on the part of Habakkuk. 
That such was the state of things at that 
time is evident from Jer. xxii. 2, 13. 
The argument in favor of the contrary 
hypothesis, derived from the recurrence 
of the words orn, b¥, ete. and the 
phrase v5 xx, etc., in the following 
part of the chapter, with undoubted appli- 
cation to the Chaldeans, is of no weight, 
since they are rather to be regarded as 


modes of expression familiar to the 
prophet, than indicative of identity of 
subject. The influence of h2x~"3, how 
long, upon the Preterite and Future ten- 
ses in this verse, so modifies them as to 
give them the force of a present time, 
though the one includes what had taken 
place down to such time, and the other, 
the possibility of its being still carried 
forward into the future. Because on, 
violence, occurs without a preposition, 
Hitzig thinks it was what was done to 
the prophet himself; but it is better, with 
Kimchi, to suppose an ellipsis of -:273, 
or, to supply tz, on account of, because 
of, with the Targum. Comp. Job xix. 
7; Jer. xx. 8. yad and pyr are syno- 
nymes, but the latter is the more expres- 
sive of the two. 

3. Some, regarding *385m and van 
as strictly parallel, understand the suffix 
55 to be omitted in the latter verb, and 
render : Why dost thou cause me to see 
wickedness, and make me look upon 
wrong? but wan, though the Hiphil 
conjugation, is never used in a causative 
sense. Besides, »7325, and not wszn, 
is the proper synonyme, corresponding to 


Cuap. I. 


HABAKKUK. 


287 


Destruction and violence are before me ; 
Contention and strife exalt themselves. 


4 On this account the law faileth, 


And true judgment goeth not forth ; 
Because the wicked circumvent the righteous, 
Therefore perverted judgment goeth forth. 


“ssn. Between the two clauses, the 
prophet introduces Jehovah, with whom 
he expostulates, as an inactive spectator 
of the evil, because his providence did 
not interfere for its removal, and it was 
allowed, unavenged, to take its course. 
The expostulation thus gains in force, 
and scope is afforded for the striking 
contrast, ver. 5, in which the Most High 
is represented as interposing for the pun- 
ishment of the wicked. xt yi773 has 
been variously explained. “The Uxx,, 
taking 4772 for 4.7%, render it 6 xpiths 
AauBdver; which the Syriac explains, 


o> mn VY oo 

| pace LOS Lie» the judge taketh 
a bribe. Abenezra translates thus; »7>4 
boss INS? ss ites a4 “DIN and 
there are men of strife and contention 
who lift up their head. 'The structure of 
the sentence, however, obliges us to re- 
gard sz as parallel to "F171, So that it 
stands in the same relation to yi, that 
the substantive verb does to 2.4. The 
nouns in both cases are nominatives to 
the verbs, and xv; is here to be taken 
intransitively i in the sense of exalting or 
raising one’s self up. Comp. Ps, lxxxix. 
10; Hos. xiii, 1; Nah, i.5. Thus Dahl, 
combining the two nouns, Und Hader, 
und Gezank erheben sich ; and Perschke, 
Es gibt Streit, und Zwist erhebet sich. 
The language is descriptive of the prey- 
alence of a litigious spirit, in consequence 
of which no one was permitted quietly to 
possess or enjoy his rights. What was 
not seized upon by main force, was ob- 
tained by perversion of law. 

4, 52-by, therefore, on this account, 
refers not to the state of things set forth 
in the verse immediately preceding, but 
to Jehovah’s forbearing to punish, spoken 


of ver. 2. Of the law, which ought to 
have been maintained in all its vital en- 
ergy, it is said 3:5n, it chilleth, groweth 
Frigid, languisheth, ‘faileth ; by which is 
meant, that it was not enforced, but left, 
as it were, to grow stiff and torpid, from 
want of use. The words, mz3> sx7—Nb1 
WE O72, may either be rendered, judgment, 
i. e., what is strictly and properly such, 
ghisous judgment never goeth forth ; 

or, judgment goeth not forth according to 
truth ; x25, signifying to perpetuity, for 
ever, and, with a negative, never, like 
Bdbisd xb, and éruly, semen to truth. 


Comp. the Arab. sincerus fidelis 


5; 


Suit; and the Eth. f RK nh: purus, 
mundus fuit. ‘The latter signification of 
the word is that adopted by the Syr. 
o> a eo 6 Pe 
|Zouspo blu? 22) lo, and 
Judgment goeth not forth in purity ; and 
is approved by Sheltinga, Hesselberg, 
Wolf, Rosenmiiller, De Wette, Winer, 
Gesenius, Lee, and Ewald, chiefly on 
the ground of Sp319 wet, wrong or 
perverted judgment, occurring, as a con- 
trasted formula, at the close of the verse, 
By the going forth of judgment is meant 
the publication of legal decisions delivered 
by a judge. In the time of the prophet, 
justice was utterly corrupted, in conse- 
quence of which there was no security 
either for person or property. “"n>%, 
from “n>, to surround, is here used in a 
bad sense, to express the ensnaring of a 
person by fraud and artifice; it depicts 
the windings of intrigue, and is best 
rendered by circumvent. Thus aint : 
cum impius pium circumvenit. SEP 
distorted, perverse, wrong, from the root 


288 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. I. 


5 Look among the nations, and behold ! 


Be ye greatly astonished ; 


For I will perform a work in your days, 

Which ye will not believe, though it should be told you. 
6 For, behold! I will raise up the Chaldeans, 

That bitter and impetuous nation ; 

Which traverseth the wide regions of the earth, 

To seize upon habitations belonging not to it. 


Comp. the Syr. Shute pervertit, 
Arab. és, constrinzit, distortos habuit 


pedes; x\ie, distortio lingue in lo- 
qguendo. LXX. xpiva dieorpaypeévor. 

5. By a sudden apostrophe Jehovah 
calls upon the Jews, in anticipation of 
the punishment which their sins deserved, 
and which should assuredly be inflicted 
upon them, to direct their attention to 
the events that were taking place among 
the surrounding nations. Nabopolassar 
had already destroyed the mighty empire 
of Assyria and founded the Chaldeo- 
Babylonian rule; he had made himself 
so formidable, that Necho found it ne- 
cessary to march an army against him, 
in order to check his progress; and 
though defeated at Megiddo, he had, 
in conjunction with his son Nebuchad- 
nezzar, gained a complete victory over 
the Egyptians at Carchemish. These 
events were calculated to alarm the Jews, 
whose country lay between the domin- 
ions of the two contending powers; but, 
accustomed as they were to confide in 
Egypt, and in the sacred localities of 
their own capital, Is. xxxi.1; Jer. vii. 4, 
and being in alliance with the Chaldeans, 
they were indisposed to listen to, and 
treated with the utmost incredulity, any 
predictions which described their over- 
throw by that people. Such overthrow 
God claims as his work, though he might 
employ men as his instruments in effect- 
ing it. msn and wan are frequently 
combined as here for the sake of effect. 
The phrase 0°32, among the nations, is 
translated by the LXX., of karapoynra, 


bp. 


ye despisers, in which they are followed 
by the Syr. and Arab. ; and this render- 
ing is adopted by Paul in his quotation of 
the verse, Acts xiii. 41. On the other 
hand, the Targ. sgera “th, Aquila, 
Symm,, Theod., and Vulg. aspicite in 
gentibus, which is sustained by all the 
Heb. MSS. that have been collated, ex- 
cept five of Kennicott’s, which have 5 a 
nations, without the preposition. To ac- 
count for the rendering of the LXX., 
some are of opinion that instead of o*452, 
they must have read o»=a5, t°733, or 
mri; others, with Pococke, in his Porta 
Mosis, chap. ili., suggest a supposititious 
root, x32, the corresponding Arabic 


Las, signifying, injustus fuit, superbe, 
insolenter se gessit; most unjustifiably 
insisting on the preference of some such 
reading to that of the Hebrew text. 
With respect to the quotation, Acts xiii. 
41, it was obviously made by the apostle 
on account of the exact similarity of the 
case of the Jews in his day, both as re- 
gards the destruction of Jerusalem by 
the Romans, and the incredulity of the 
nation in reference to that event. ‘ Pau- 
lus fideliter accommodat in usum suum 
Prophetee verba, quia sicutisemel mina- 
tus fuerat Deus per prophetam suam 
Habacuc, ita etiam semper fuit sui sim- 
ilis.”” Calvin, in loc. The double form, 
men smenM, is used for intensity. 
wmonn is ‘the Hithpael for smonnn. 
Comp. amare amenenn, Is. xxix. 9, and 
my note on 1 that verse, Before by sub- 
aud. "28. . 

6. Now follows a lengthened and fear- 
ful description of the character and op- 


Cuap. I. 


7 It is terrible and dreadful ; 


HABAKKUK. 


289 


Its judgment and its dignity are from itself. 
8 Swifter than leopards are its horses, 
And lighter than evening wolves ; 
Its horses spread proudly along ; 
Yea, its horse that come from afar: 
They fly like an eagle hastening to devour. 
9 It cometh entirely for violence ; 
The aspect of their faces is like the east wind; 
It collecteth the captives as sand. 


erations of the instrument which Jehovah 
would employ in executing his work. 
mrp 22m, which has unquestionably 
the force of the future, must be referred 
to the special raising up of the Chaldcans 
to undertake the expedition against Ju- 
dea, and not to their organization as a 
political power, since they had already 
been upwards of twenty years in posses- 
sion of such power under Nabopolassar. 
On this account, some prefer rendering 
the phrase, Behold! I will excite. For 
an account of this people, see on Is, xxiii. 
23. In “m2971 “97 is a paronomasia. 
By “7, bitter, the fierce and cruel dis- 
position of the Chaldeans is expressed ; 
comp. Jer. 1.42; by “m3, rash, hasty, 
the rapidity or impetuosity of their op- 
erations. In the latter part of the verse, 
their widely extended conquests under 
Nebuchadnezzar are clearly predicted. 

fy mNt the LXX. render Ajupa, 


Symm. déyua, Vulg. onus, Syr. lope, 
vision. Targ. 33, decree or sentence, all 
deriving it from x3, in the sense, of 
sip nwa, fo uft up, or utter anything 
with the voice, and regarding it as equiv- 
alent to xv, from the same root. The 
signification decree, though approved by 
Hesselberg, De Wette, Winer, and Ge- 
senius, is less appropriate than that of 
dignity, which is that of our common ver- 
sion, and is adopted by Hitzig, Maurer, 
and Ewald. Comp. Gen. xlix. 3; Job 
xiii. 11; Ps. xii. 5. ms'v nowhere occurs 
in reference to a judicial decree. What 


37 


the prophet has in view appears to be 
the self-assumed political superiority of 
the Chaldeans in the Babylonian empire. 
As they had raised themselves to this 
dignity, so they would permit none to 
share in their counsels and determina- 
tions, but would act in the most arbitrary 
manner. 

8. Frequent reference is made in Scrip- 
ture to the “evening wolves,” on account 
of the sudden ravages which, in the 
keenness of their hunger, they commit 
on the flocks at that time of the day. 
See Gen. xlix. 27; Jer. v. 6; Zeph. iii. 
3; and comp. Virgil’s Georg. iii. 537, iv. 
431; and the Afneid, ii. 355, ix. 59. 
The LXX. render improperly, Advxous ris 
*ApaBlas. WE, from the root 35, having 


here the signification of the Arab. us, 


superbivit, gloriatus fuit, describes the 
proud and spirited mien of the horses 
composing the Chaldean cavalry. Comp. 
the inimitable description of the Arabian 
war-horse, Job xxxix. 19-24, The mean- 
ing of the two last lines of the verse is, 
that the eagerness of the cavalry to 
plunder the Jews should be so great, that 
they would make no account of the fa- 
tigue occasioned by the length of their 
march. 

9, 10. $2 is the less correct ortho- 
graphy of sb3, which occurs several times 
in the course of the Hebrew Bible. The 
affix refers to 2, ver. 6. So great was 
to be the invading army, that it would 
seem as if it were composed of the entire 


290 HABAKKUK. Cuap. I. 


10 It maketh a mockery of kings, 
And princes are a laughter to it; 
It smileth at every fortress ; 
It heapeth up earth and taketh it. 


11 Then it gaineth fresh spirit ; 


nation. Considerable difficulty has been 
experienced in the interpretation of the 
words, map Ory728 maga. By the 
LXX. the Gat rey: man is rendered 
dvdeothkotas ; by Symm, mpdcotus ; by 


the Syr. jopum aspect ; by the Targ. 


bap, front, what is opposite to any- 
thing. The Vulg. omits the word al- 
together, obviously on the principle of 
its being sufficiently expressed by facies 
immediately following. With these Aben- 
ezra and Kimchi agree; and thus also 
generally, Munster, Vatablus, Pagninus, 
Castalio, Calvin and others. On the 
other hand, Gesenius derives the word 
from the supposititious root Dy3, Arab. 


>> to congregate, heap up, and renders 


it host, troop ; but, as Lee observes, the 
host of their faces is anything but He- 
brew phraseology. Rosenmiiller, Lee, 
Maurer, Hitzig, and Ewald, derive it 
from the same root in the significations, 
impetus, desire, a striving after ; Ger. stre- 
ben : while our own, and some other mod- 
ern translators, adopt the idea of absorp- 
tion, supping up, etc. from the signification, 
of wis, N25. Considering the marked 
and independent coincidence of the an- 
cient versions above quoted, borne out, 


as they are, by the Arab. Le , edparuit ; 


guod de re quavis extrinsicus apparet ; 
corpus ret, seu res individua existans et 
conspicua, I cannot but regard aspect or 
appearance as the term best adapted to 
convey the meaning of the prophet. 
mo°sp, in every other passage in which 
it occurs, has the signification of easf- 
ward, and it is taken in this acceptation 
by Abarbanel, Parkhurst, Dahl, Wolff, 
and Hitzig, who explain it either of the 
direction in which the Chaldeans would 


return home with their booty, or of their 
first coming down along the coast of the 
Mediterranean, and then turning direct 
east upon the Jews. Both constructions 
are forced. Gesenius renders forwards, 
and gives the whole sentence thus: the 
host of their faces is forwards. Here 
again I prefer the rendering of Symm. 
tveuos katowy; the Targ. map mn> 

manp, the Vulg. ventus urens, which, 
or east wind, its equivalent, is the render- 
ing of many of the moderns. It is true, 
that the east wind is elsewhere uniformly 
expressed by E*77, without the m; but 
this letter seems clearly to be here used 
paragogically, just as it is in p23, nd%> 
mies, the primitive forms of which are 
Vip, 233, 7%. In some instances, in- 
deed, it is the » directive, indicating 
motion towards the quarter specified, 
but in others it has lost all such power. 
For the east wind, or samoom, see on 
Is. xxvii. 8. Nothing could more ap- 
propriately describe the terrific appear- 
ance of the destructive Chaldean army, 
than this phenomenon, which occasions 
awful devastation in the regions over 
which it passes. The collecting of the 
captives like sand, which the prophet im- 
mediately adds, corroborates the opinion 
that the samoom is intended, as it is fre- 
quently accompanied with whirlwinds 
of sand, which is collected and carried 
with great rapidity across the desert. 
The 10th verse sets forth the haughty, 
fearless, and irresistible character of the 
Chaldeans. The last clause of the verse 
describes the throwing up of walls or bat- 
teries before fortified cities, from which 
to attack them. “£> seldom signifies 
fine dust ; it is more commonly used of 
earth generally, including clay, mire, ete. 

11. ts, 7d 7, usually, rendered then, 








Cuap. I. 


HABAKKUK. 


291 


It passeth onward, and contracteth guilt, [saying,] 
Is this his power through his God ? 


12 


Art not Thou from eternity, 


O Jehovah! my God, my Holy One? 


We shall not die: 


O Jehovah! thou hast appointed it for judgment. 
O Rock! thou hast ordained it for correction. 

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to regard evil ; 
Thou canst not behold injustice. 
Why dost thou behold the plunderers ? 
Why art thou silent when the wicked destroyeth 
Him that is more righteous than he ? 

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, 


has here the force of thereupon, marking 
the transition from what had just been 
described to what immediately follows, 
and their intimate connection with each 
other. xm is the accusative to non, 
which denoting to succeed, exchange, 
change, renew, etc., the phrase means, 
to assume, or gain a fresh accession of 
courage or military spirit. For this sig- 
nification of f15, comp. Josh, ii. 11, v. 1. 
Elated by the fortresses they had taken, 
and the victories they had won in heathen 
countries, the Chaldeans are represented 
as passing onwards into Judea; and 
treating with contempt the puny resist- 
ance made to them by the Jews, asking 
sarcastically, “Is this all your boasted 
power conceded to you by the God in 
whom you confide?” Comp. Is. x. 10, 
11, xxxvi. 19, 20; Ps. Ixxix. 10, exy. 
2. The aggravated guilt which they 
contracted (Oys) lay in their vilifying 
Jehovah, by speaking of him as incapa- 
ble of protecting his people. This simple 
construction of the verse at once frees it 
from the numerous difficulties with which 
it has been clogged by interpreters, and 
gives peculiar force to the interrogatory 
appeal in that which follows. The ellip- 
sis of -jcx> is of frequent occurrence in 
Hebrew, The absence of the interroga- 
tive sis more seldom; but comp. Gen, 
xxvii. 24, ny mms for nz ANN; 2 Sam. 
vii. 19, nest, this is, for nan, ts this; 


and xvi. 17, $y9—ny J70hn mY “ This 
is thy kindness to thy friend,” for, Js 
this, ete. 

12. The contemptuous manner in 
which the enemy had treated the Most 
High calls forth an impassioned appeal 
from the prophet, in which he vindicates 
the eternal existence and purity of Je- 
hovah, as that God who had formerly 
wrought deliverance for his people, and 
who was now employing the Chaldeans, 
not for their annihilation, but only for 
their punishment and correction. Since 
“39, Rock, is elsewhere used metaphori- 
cally of God, I have retained it in the 
translation. See on Is. xxvi. 4. It is 
here parallel tom$n>. The Tikkun Soph- 
erim nian xd is unsupported by any au- 
thority. 

13. Habakkuk resumes the expostula- 
tory mode of address which he had em- 
ployed, verses 2,3. The o-1342, plun- 
derers, were the Chaldeans who had been 
the allies of the Jews, but now treated 
them with violence. Comp. Is. xxi. 2, 
and xxiv. 16. The LXX., Syr., and 
Arab., have nothing corresponding to 
129292; but it is expressed in Aquil., Sym., 
Theod., the Targ., and Vulg. Wicked 
as the Jews were, they were righteous in 
comparison of the Babylonians. Comp. 
for the sentiment, Ezek. xvi. 51, 52. 

14. God is often said to do what he 
permits to be done by others. 94 is 


292 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. IL 


As the reptiles which have no ruler ? 
15 It bringeth up all with its hook, 


It gathereth them into its net, 


It collecteth them into its drag ; 
Therefore it rejoiceth and exulteth. 

16 Therefore it sacrificeth to its net, 
And burneth incense to its drag ; 
Because through them its portion is fat, 


And its food fattened meat. 


17 Is it for this it emptieth its net, 
And spareth not to slay the nations continually ? 


used of aquatic animals, such as crabs 
and other shell-fish, Ps. civ. 25, a sense 
which the parallelism and_ connection 
here require. 

15-17. m2 is allowed by all to be 
here the accusative, though it was, in 
the same position, the nominative, ver. 9. 
Converting the simile employed in the 
preceding verse into a metaphor, the 
prophet describes the rapacity of the 
Chaldeans, the indiscriminate and uni- 
versal havoc which they would effect, 
and their proud confidence in their own 
prowess. dm, an unusual punctuation 
for = n>37. "The hook, the net, and the 
aoe are separately mentioned, to indi- 
cate that every means would be em- 
ployed in taking captives, and whatever 


else came in their way. To their arms, 
signified by these implements of fishers, 
they rendered divine honors, ascribing to 
them solely the success which they had 
in war. Comp. Justin. 43. 3. “ Ab 
origine rerum pro diis immortalibus ve- 
teras coluere.”” Lucian in Trag. SxvSau 
pev dxivddn Stover. By the emptying of 
the net, ver. 17, is meant the depositing 
of the captives, etc., in Babylon, in order 
to go forth to fresh conquest and plunder. 
It is strongly implied in the questions 
with which the chapter concludes, that 
God would not permit the Chaldeans to 
proceed in their selfish conquests without 
a check, but the answer is reserved for 
the sequel, 





CHAPTER II. 


Tuts chapter contains an introductory statement respecting the waiting posture in which 
the prophet placed himself, in order to obtain a divine revelation in reference to the fate 
of his people and of the Chaldeans, their oppressors, 1; a command which he received to 
commit legibly to writing the revelation which was about to be made to him, 2; an assur- 
ance, that though the prophecy should not be fulfilled immediately, yet it would cer- 
tainly be at length accomplished, 3; and a contrasted description of the two different 
classes of the Jews to whom it was to be communicated, 4. The insolence of the Chal- 
deans, and their insatiable lust of conquest, are next set forth, 5; on which the proper 
v9 , sentence, or prophetical denunciation, commences, in the form of a taunt on the 
part ‘of the nations, in which they anticipate the downfall of that hostile power, 6-8; and 
the punishment of its rapacity, 9-11; of its cruelty and injustice, with a special view to 











Cuap. II. 


HABAKKUK. 


293 


the universal spread of true religion, 12-14; of its wanton and sanguinary wars, 15-17, 
and of its absurd and fruitless idolatry, 18,19. The last verse of the chapter beautifully 
contrasts with the two preceding, by representing Jehovah as the only God, entitled to 


universal submission and homage. 





1 I wm stand upon my watch-post, 
And station myself upon the fortress, 
And will look out to see what he will say to me, 
And what I shall reply in regard to my argument. 


1. mye'070 properly signifies observance, 
guard, watch, from "7210, to watch, observe, 
preserve, etc., but here, as a concrete, 
the place, or post of observation. Comp. 
Is. xxi. 8, where it is similarly. used, 
with m= 27 for its parallel. Thus theSyr. 


> 
weliDo3, my place. From the use of 


six in the corresponding hemistich, it 
is obvious that the post of a sentinel 
or watchman appointed to keep an eye 
upon what may transpire without a for- 
tified city, is that from which the idea 
is here borrowed. It has been ques- 
tioned whether our prophet has any real 
locality in view, or whether the words 
are to be understood metaphorically. 
The former is advocated by Hitzig, who 
after describing it as a high and steep 
point, such as a tower, and comparing 
2 Kings ix. 17, 2 Sam. xviii. 24, says 
‘‘ Here, in a solitary position, far from 
the bustle and noise of men, with his 
eye directed towards heaven, and his col- 
lected spirit fixed upon God, he looks 
out for revelations.” With the excep- 
tion, however, of Wolff, who preceded 
him, the hypothesis has met with no ap- 
probation. All that the passage seems 
to teach is, that Habakkuk, anxious 
to ascertain the Divine purpose relative 
to the enemies of his people, brought 
his mind into such a state of holy ex- 
pectancy as was favorable to the reception 
of supernatural communications. 5x, 
to look about, from which mix, a spec- 
ulator, watchman, is derived, as likewise 
mes, a watch-tower, is employed, as 


here in Piel, to express the looking out 
for an answer to prayer, Ps. vy. 4. The 
paragogic = of the Futures, marks the 
intensity of his desire. The formula 
3.427, which the Syr. and Targ. render 


maha V Leaks, ony bhny, in the 
sense of speaking or conversing with a 
person, the LXX. give by Aaafoa év 
éuol, ‘will speak iz me.” That the 
preposition 3 is here purposely used, in 
preference to Sy %, OY, or my, to dense 
the internal mode of the Divine com- 
munication which the prophet received, 
has been maintained by some who com- 
pare 937923 min? mam» “the Spirit of 
Jehovah spake in me,” 2 Sam. xxiii. 2 ; 

Num. xii. 6, and particularly Zech. i. 9, 

13, 14, ii. 2, 7, iv. 1, 4, 5, v. 5, 10, vi. 
4, where the interpreting angel that ad- 
dressed him in vision is uniformly styled 
‘a nasn qsbian, the Angel that spake in 
me, which the LXX. as uniformly ren- 
der 6 Aada@y év euol. This view was an- 
ciently expressed by Jerome, who says, 
«Sed et hoc notandum, ex eo quod dix- 
erat, ut videam quid loquatur in me, 
propheticam visionem et eloquium Dei 
non extrinsicus ad Prophetas fieri, sed 
intrinsicus. et interiori homini respon- 
dere.” The same construction is put 
upon the phrase by Delitzsch, in his 
able commentary on our prophet. But. 
it seems after all more than doubtful 
whether any such construction can fairly 
be put upon the phrase in most of the 
passages in which it occurs. In 2 Sam, 
xxxiii. 2, if may be admitted, though 


294 HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. II. 


2 And Jehovah answered me and said: 
Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, 
That he who readeth it may run. 


through or by will equally well suit. 
The other declarations made Num. xii. 
6, show that it cannot there be so un- 
derstood, while what Moses states, taken 
in connection with 1 Samuel xxv. 39, 
and the passages in Zechariah, goes to 
prove that if any stress at all is to be 
laid upon the preposition, it must be 
regarded as conveying the idea of fa- 
miliar or intimate communication. In 
“mmzin, the suffix is not to be taken pas- 
sively, but actively; ¢.¢. the mnsin, ar- 
gument, complaint, reproof, or in what 
way soever the word may be rendered, 
was not any employed by others, but 
what the prophet himself hath employed 
in the preceding chapter. What he was 
desirous of obtaining, was an answer to 
the statement which he had there made 
respecting the Divine conduct in permit- 
ting the Chaldeans to multiply their con- 
quests without end. Maurer: ‘ causa 
querimoniz mez.” 

2. 414n, the vision, or prophetic matter 
which was about to be communicated to 
the prophet. That the idea of digging, 
boring, or graving, is to be attached to 
“xa, the position of the verb in such con- 
nection clearly forbids. Had the cha- 
racter of the writing been durability, 
such an idea might fitly have been ex- 
pressed by a word signifying to grave or 
dig deep, into a hard substance, but as it 
is unquestionably legibility that is in- 
tended, we are compelled to understand 
the verb as relative to ah>, and that 
either as a new Imperative, or as an ad- 
verbial Infinitive qualifying it. In the 
latter case the clause should be rendered, 
Write the vision, and that clearly. Thus 
the LXX.: Ipdwov Spaciv, kal capas. 
The Targ. has xy7£%3 NNNIa2 Nas, 
with which the Syr. SO far agrees, ren- 


dering the verb by shsgsae to explain. 


Comp. —3u"F, "S2—NIN2y, write — 


very plainly, Deut. xxvii. 8, The com- 
mand therefore, has respect to the size, 
and not to the depth of the writing. 
ninn, tables, having the article, Ewald 
thinks the prophet refers to the tables 
which were openly exhibited in the mar- 
ket-place, on which public announce- 
ments were graven in large and clear 
characters, in common use among the 
people. The article, however, may only 
designate the tables which were to be 
employed for the purpose. It may 
merely indicate these as definite in the 
mind of the speaker. This is often the 
case in Hebrew, when it cannot be ren- 
dered by the definite article in other lan- 
guages. For the writing tablets of the 
ancients, see on Is, viii. 1. The LXX, 
have mvtfov, boxrwood. The reason why 
the prophecy should be easily legible, is 
stated to be, that whosoever read it might 
run and publish it to all within his reach. 
It was a joyful message to the Jews, in- 
volving as it did the destruction of their 
oppressor, and their own consequent de- 
liverance. Compare Dan. xii. 4, sou 
mean many pea, “Many shall run 
to and fro,” viz. with the explanation 
of the prophecy when unsealed, ‘“ and 
knowledge shall be increased.” ‘The two 
passages are remarkably parallel as to 
their general meaning, though the times 
and events to which they refer are to- 
tally different. Comp. also Rev. xxii. 
17, Kal 6 dxotwy elmare’ “Epxov! 475", 
to run, is equivalent to 33, 40 prophesy, 
Jer. xxiii. 21, obviously on the principle 
that those who were charged with a 
divine message were to use all despatch 
in making it known. The common in- 
terpretation, indeed, represents the mean- 
ing to consist in the writing being so 
large as to be easily read even by persons 
who were hasting past it. But in or- 
der to bear this construction, the words 
must read thus: yon “bh Sop" Ww, 











Cuap. II. 


HABAKKUK. : 295 


3 For the vision is still for an appointed time, 
But it shall speak at the end, and not lie; 
Though it should delay, wait for it, 

For it will surely come, and not tarry. 


that the runner, or, he that runneth, may 
read it. Besides, such an addition would 
scarcely be requisite after 32, and cer- 
tainly would not correspond to the force 
of 42725, in order that, with which the 
hemistich commences. 

3. The particles »>, and 4, in M5», 
are correlative. yi, from “2°, to fiz, 
appoint, denotes, in such connection, a 
season or period of time definitely fixed 
in the purpose of God for the occurrence 
of the predicted events. It is frequently 
employed by Daniel in this acceptation, 
along with yf, the end, or termination 
of the state of the things comprehended in 
the prophecy. Comp. Dan. viii. 17, 19, 
xi. 27, 35; and somewhat similar phra- 
seology, chap. viii. 26, x. 14. The term 
obviously implies that the period was 
still future, which is also expressed by 
the use of 143, stil, yet. This adverb 
is too closely connected in sense with 
“3 i%, to admit of the rendering of Mi- 
chaelis: “There will still come a vision, 
which shall determine the time ;”” which 
he refers to Jeremiah’s prophecy of the 
seventy years. m5" has been variously 
translated. LXX. dvaredc?; Syr. {21 
to come; Vulg. apparebit ; Targ. ym, 
prepared. As, like its cognates mE» and 
me2, the root m15, of which m5 is the 
future in Hiphil, signifies to breathe, 
blow, puff, Michaelis, Bauer, Staudlin, 
De Wette, Hesselberg, Maurer, Winer, 
Hitzig, Ewald, and Hengstenberg, in his 
Psalms, vol. i. p. 255, contend, that it is 
here to be taken in the acceptation of 
panting, hasting, eagerly moving forward 
to an object, and that the meaning is, 
that the prophecy hastened to its accom- 
plishment. Such construction, however, 
requires us to attach to yp the idea of 
the object or objects on which a pro- 
phecy terminates, the end or extreme 


point beyond which its import does not 
extend. But the word nowhere occurs 
in this acceptation, but, as Delitzsch has 
shown, it always designates, in a pro- 
phetico-chronological sense, the time of 
the end, whatever may be the compass 
of events to which reference may be had. 
Besides, yb and 14124 are so obviously 
parallel, that they do not admit of being 
differently construed. ‘y;> here, is only 
an abbreviation of the phrase yp—rz}, 
Dan. viii. 17, of which we have again a 
varied form in yp sy", ver. 19. I 
therefore agree with Abarbanel, Jarchi, 
Kimchi, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius, Ro- 
senmiiller, Wolff, and Delitzsch, in as- 
signing to m=" in this place the accepta- 
tion of speaking, breathing out words, in 
which acceptation the verb is used Prov. 
xii. 17, xiv. 5, 25, xix. 5,9. This inter- 
pretation derives support from the anti- 
thetical a35° x1, in which the idea of 
speaking is obviously implied. The 
meaning of the verse will accordingly 
be, that though the destruction of the 
Chaldean power, about to be predicted, 
was not to take place immediately, yet 
it was definitely fixed in the Divine 
counsel, and would infallibly happen at 
the termination of the period appointed 
for the exercise of its oppression, and for 
the deliverance of the captive Hebrews ; 
it was to be an object of confident ex- 
pectation, though his arrival might be 
somewhat protracted. For ssrczn*, 
see on Is, xxix. 9. 3" 85, is emphatic, 
denoting the certainty of the event. 
“nk, signifies to stay Jong, and intimates 
that the predicted event would not be 
protracted to any great length. Instead 
of sms sb, upwards of forty of Ken- 
nicott and De Rossi’s MSS., four ancient 
editions, the LXX., Aquil., Syr., Targ., 
and Vulg., read sms} Nd. 


296 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. II. 


4 Behold the proud! his soul is not right within him ; 
But the righteous shall live by his faith. 


4, Most interpreters apply the former 
hemistich of this verse to the Chaldeans, 
supposing the denunciation against them 
to begin here; but its coherence with 
the preceding verse is too close to admit 
of this construction, while the latter 
hemistich, were such application admit- 
ted, would awkwardly interrupt the 
prophecy at its very commencement. 
On the other hand, the whole verse 
most naturally and appropriately applies 
to the Jewish people, and contains a des- 
cription of those who would proudly re- 
ject the prophetic vision, and of those 
who would give it a cordial reception : 
the two members forming a marked and 
striking antithesis. py», of which nbs» 
may either be the third feminine singular 
of Pual, or a noun formed from that 
part of the verb, occurs elsewhere only 
in Hiphil, Num. xiv. 44; but it is evi- 
dent, from the use of the derivative tz», 
as denoting a swelling, tumor, mount, 
hill, etc., and the comparison of the con- 
text of both passages, that it is employed 
metaphorically to express the idea of 
mental inflation, elation, pride, presump- 
tion, or the like. Such Hebrew usage sup- 
ports the relation of the verb to the Arab. 


as, tumore laboravit, rather than to 


Nes, neglexit vel omisit rem, per so- 


cordiam non curavit, for which Pococke 
contends at great length in his Porta 
Mosis; though the rendering of the 
LXX. imooretAnra, and that of Aquila, 
vwxerevduevov, may both be referred to 
the radical notion conveyed by this root. 
Its reference to bx, to set, become dark 
as proposed by Abarbanel, and approved 
by Deutsch and Wolff, cannot be sus- 
tained. Nor must it be overlooked, that 
though the following words, m4 32 x} 
42 ‘dea, are not to be regarded as epexe- 
getical of the term in question, they 
nevertheless appear to have been sug- 
gested by it. “> signifies not only to 
be straight or right, in opposition to being 


crooked, but also, even, level, plain, smooth, 
in opposition to what is rough, rugged, 
and difficult, See 1 Kings vi. 35; Ezra 
viii. 21; eb v. 9; Prov. xxiii. 31, where 
ibuls| ‘dios: or as Jerome gives it, 
ingreditur blande ; De Dieu, subit facil- 


dime. Com. the Arab. yes FSacilis fuit 


res; facilitas, lenitas, Of the reading 
bboy, found in one of Kennicott’s MSS., 
or mpty, as it is written in another, no 
account is to be made, though in his 
Dissert. Gen. § 72, that author prefers 
it to that which is attested by all the 


other codices. The Syr. fies, wicked- 


ness, is founded upon a mistake of mbey 
for rd2¥. mex I consider to be an ‘ab- 
stract noun, “used elliptically. for 3s 
mbED, a man of arrogance or presumption, 
and so to be rendered adjectively, the 
proud, presumptuous, etc. For instances 
of similar ellipsis, comp. + mben “x, Tam 
prayer, for MbEN By 2s; Iam aman 
of prayer, Ps. cix. 43 457%, arrogance, 
for 7177 ds, man of arrogance, i.e. ar- 
rogant, Jer. 1. 31, 32; Dan. ix. 23. 
mos ninen, thou art delights, for O78 
mAs niven, thou art a man of delights, 
i. @ greatly beloved, as it is expressed in 
full, chap. x. 11, 19. See on Micah vi. 
9, The term is thus strictly antithetical 
to pons, the just, in the following hem- 
istich, precisely as the predicate m33°—Nb 
ja wes, his soul ts not right within him, 
is to mim? “rz sows, by his faith he shall — 
live. With respect to this latter point of 
antithesis, it must be evident, that, as 
nin, the latter predicate, signifies not 
merely to live, but to live well, be happy, 
the former must convey the idea of its 
opposite. This was clearly perceived by — 
Luther, who often discovers a wonderful 
sagacity in seizing upon the meaning of 
a passage, though in his translation he 
may not adhere to the strict significations © 





Cuap. II. 


5 Moreover wine is treacherous ; 


of single words. He renders the words 
thus: Siehe wer halsstarrig ist, der 
wird keine Ruhe in seinem Herzen haben. 
*¢ Behold he who is stubborn shall have 
no tranquillity in his heart.” So also 
Gesenius : “Lo, the lofty-minded, his 
soul is not tranquil within him.” Mau- 
rer: “Non planus, complanatus, com- 
positus, tranquillus, etc., est animus 
ejus.” To this interpretation I adhere, 
as best meeting the exigency of the pas- 
sage. While those Jews who, elated 
by false views of security, refused to 
listen to the Divine message should 
have their security disturbed, and their 
minds agitated by the calamities with 
which they would be visited, such as 
lived righteously before God and men, 
should experience true happiness in the 
exercise of faith in that message, and 
others which God might communicate to 
them by his prophets. Thus a Lapide: 
*¢ Incredulus habet animam, id est vitam, 
non rectam, sed distortam, anxiam, mis- 
eram, et infelicem; justus autem in fide et 
Spe sua agit vitam rectam, puta letam, 
quietam, sanctam et felicem.” a, ém, or 
within him, is added to show that the verb 
"> is not to be taken here as referring to 
anything of an objective character, such 
as the Divine estimation, agreeably to 
the meaning of the phrase »:-y2 “w2 
mim, to be right in the sight of Jehovah, 
but must be understood as marking the 
subjective sphere of the predicate. For 
the fullest view of the various construc- 
tions, both logical and philological, that 
have been put upon this verse, I refer the 
more curious reader to Delitzsch. From 
the discrepancy existing between the He- 
brew, and the version of the LXX., some 
have argued a corruption of the former, 
and have proposed emendations; but the 
difference has arisen either from a desire 
on the part of these translators to render 
the sense plainer, or from their mistaking 
one letter for another that is similar. 
They render, éav émoorelAnrat ove eddonet 
 Wuxh pov év abtg@. 6 St Sinquos ex who- 


HABAKKUK. 


297 


Tews ov Choerat. To such rendering, its 
quotation by Paul in Heb. x. 38, gives no 
sanction, since he not unfrequently quotes 
passages from that version containing ren- 
derings to which there never could have 
been anything corresponding in the He- 
brew text. In the present instance he 
takes a liberty with the version itself, 
placing the latter part of the verse first, 
and the former last, and omitting pov 
after riorts. Nor, it must further be ob- 
served, is it his intention either here, or 
in Rom, i. 17, and Gal. iii. 11, in em- 
ploying the words, 6 Sinaws ek mlorews 
(jcerat, to maintain, that the doctrine 
of justification by faith in Christ is 
taught by Habakkuk ; he merely applies 
the principle laid down by the prophet 
respecting the instrumentality of faith in 
securing the safety and happiness of the 
pious portion of the Jewish people to the 
subject of which he is treating —the in- 
fluence of faith in the gospel scheme of 
salvation. As ponx is the nominative 
absolute, 4r2 oxy cannot be connected 
with it, except in regard to the pronom- 
inal reference, but must be joined with 
mom, as for the righteous, he shall live 
by his faith. From the circumstance, 
however, that the two former words are, 
in most MSS. and editions, joined by the 
accents Merca and Tiphca, while the lat- 
ter, as a disjunctive, separates the second 
from the third, it might seem that the 
Rabbins construed the clause thus: but 
the just by his faith, shail tive. And this 
construction would seem to confirm the 
hypothesis that in his quotation, Rom. i. 
17, Gal, iii. 11, the Apostle connects ék 
miorews With 6 Sixaos, and not with (jce- 
tat; but as quoted by him, Heb. x. 38, 
the former division of the words alone 
suits the connection, in which his object 
evidently is to show the necessity of faith 
as a means of perseverance under all the 
afflictions and persecutions of the chris- 
tian life. See Owen on the passage. 

5. The two first lines of this verse 
partake of the nature of a proverb, being 


38 


298 HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. IL 


The haughty man stayeth not at home, 
Because he enlargeth his desire as Sheol ; 
He is even as death, and cannot be satisfied ; 
He gathered for himself all the nations, _ 
And collecteth for himself all the people, 
6 Shall not all these utter an ode against him, 
A song of derisive taunt against him, and say : 
Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his! 


How long ? 


And ladeth himself with many pledges ! 


expressed in a short and pithy manner, 
and admitting of general application. It 
is, however, obvious from the connection 
with what follows, that they are intro- 
duced with special reference to the Chal- 
dean power, the nefarious conduct of 
which the prophet immediately proceeds 
to describe. The phrase 7343 4°9m, wine 
ts a deceiver, has its parallel, Prov, xxx. 
1, 47571 7d, wine ts a mocker. "7 occurs 
only here, and Prov. xxi. 24, where, from 
its connection with 17, proud, as its syn- 
onyme, it clearly signifies elated, haughty, 
LXX. éaatév.  Chald. -m:, as used 
by the Rabbins, superdivit. See Buxt. 
in woe. Thus also in the Nazarzean Syr. 


sea, Ethpa. superbivit. There is, there- 


fore, no necessity for recurring to the 
Arab., the attempted derivations from 
which are very precarious. The intro- 
ductory particles "> 51 are designed 
to connect the proper prophecy with 
what had just been developed of the 
vision, as that which formed the most 
important part of it. sx is expressive 
of addition, and »5 of certainty. That 
the prophet has his eye upon the intem- 
perance to which the Babylonians were 
greatly addicted, there can be little doubt. 
Comp. Dan. v.; with Herod. i, 191; 
Xenoph. Cyrop. vii. 5,15. ** Babylonii 
maxime in vinum et que ebrietatem 
sequuntur effusi sunt.” Curtius, v. 1. 
How strikingly was the deceptive cha- 
racter of wine exemplified in the case of 
Belshazzar! 13, primarily signifies to 
dwell, remain at rest, which signification 


better suits the present passage than the 
secondary one of being decorous, proper, 
etc., adopted by the Vulg , Ewald, and 
some others. Still itis aquestion, whether 
the not remaining tranquil is to be viewed 
as a voluntary or as an involuntary act. 
The Targ., Rashi, Kimchi, Ben-Melec, 
De Wette, Justi, Maurer, and Delitzsch, 
refer it to the forcible ejection for the 
Babylonians : Abenezra, Abarbanel, Ro- 
senmiiller, Wolff, Wahl, Gesenius, and 
Hitzig, to their restless disposition, by 
which they were continually impelled to 
go forth upon new expeditions of con- 
quest. The latter seems, from what 
follows, to be the preferable interpreta- 
tion. For i353 dingo a"r1n, see on Is. 
v. 14, and comp. Proy. xxvii. 20, xxx. 15. 
The insatiable desire of conquest, which 
specially showed itself in the reign of 
Nebuchadnezzar, is here forcibly pre- 
dicted. prtan—b> and e-syn—b> must 
be restricted to all the nations with which 
the Jews were familiar. 

6. Comp. Is. xiv. 4, and see my notes 
on $zxa as there occurring. mx7>v oc- 
curs only here, and Prov. i. 6, in which 
verse also all the three synonymes 
don, mssdn, and min are found. It 
properly signifies derision, taunt, scorn, 
from 4715, to stammer, speak barbarously 
or unintelligibly ; hence to mock, deride ; 
and thus the substantive obtained the 
acceptation, taunt, taunting song. LXX. 
axotewdoy Adyov. In the later Hebrew 
the word is used to denote poetry in gen- 
eral, 4" means oratio inflexa, per- 


a ee | 


ani 


Crap. II. 


HABAKKUK. 


299 


7 Shall not they rise up suddenly that have lent thee on usury ? 
And awake that shall shake thee violently ? 
And thou shalt become their prey. 

8 Because thou hast plundered many nations, 


plexa, an enigma, highly figurative and 
difficult language, requiring acuteness 
and ingenuity fully to understand it. 


Comp. the Arab, dle : 3d >> supera- 


vit negotit difficultatem. Delitzsch not 
unaptly instances the words 17123, ver. 
6, F7>U5, ver. 7, and yi>p°p, ver. 16, 
as enigmata of this description. The 
derisive ode or song commences imme- 
diately, and occupies the rest of the 
chapter. It consists of five stanzas, the 


three first of which are composed of 


three verses each, the fourth of four 
verses, and the last of two. Each stanza 
has its distinct and appropriate subject ; 
and with the exception of the last, they 
all commence with *in, wo, the denuncia- 
tive interjection ; and have each a verse 
at the close, beginning with >; thus 
forming an organic whole of singular force 
and beauty. ‘78 is to be taken im- 
personally or collectively. w-ux2y has 
been variously interpreted. Several of 
the Rabbins, the Syr., Vulg., and after 
them Luther, and other translators, take 
it to be compounded of a», dense, and 
2, clay, which ten of Kennicott’s MSS. 
read as two words, and most commenta- 
tors who follow them suppose riches or 
earthly goods to be meant : but it is more 
in accordance with the grammatical form 
of the word to regard it as a quadriliteral 
noun, from the root D2», to exchange, 
give a pledge; in Hiph., to lend on a 
pledge. The signification of the noun is 
thus correctly given by Lee: “an ac- 
cumulation of pledges in the hand of an 
unfeeling usurer.”’ The form is that of 
bobup as in d-b5n from ton; a2 
or e103 from “72> } aals) from "303 
“OAbY from sev. The reduplication ex- 
presses intensity or augmentation. Mau- 


rer, copia pignorum captorum, an inter- - 


pretation already given by Nic. Fuller in 


his Miscell. Sac. lib. v. cap. viii. The 
Chaldean power is thus represented as a 
rapacious and cruel usurer, who had ac- 
cumulated the property of others, and 
from whom it would again be taken. 
Comp. Deut. xxiv. 10-13, for the use of 
was, and the law against cruelty in 
usurers. The hypothesis of Delitzsch, 
that v-vay is, as an enigmatical term, 
to be understood both as a compound, 
and as a quadriliteral, is not in keeping 
with his usual good sense. 

7. yn, suddenly, corresponds to 
“r—72, Jou long ? in the preceding 
verse, and not improbably refers to the 
unexpectedness of the attack made upon 
Babylon by the Medes and Persians. 
See on Is. xxi. 3,4. ‘jd2 properly sig- 
nifies ¢o bite, and thus it is rendered in 
most versions. Some translate, oppress ; 
but, since it likewise signifies to lend on 
usury, there can be little doubt the 
prophet intended it to be understood in 
this acceptation, as a striking antithesis 
to wryayx at the close of the preceding 


verse. Comp. the Aram. n=3, hei, 
momordit, usuras exegit, Arab. Uey5 


the same. The same mode of speech 
was not unknown both to the Greeks 
and Romans. Aristoph. Nub. i. 12, 
daxvouevos imd tTav xpedy. Lucan. i. 
171, wsura vorax. The meaning is, that 
as the Babylonians had cruelly amassed 
the property of others, so other nations, 
like devouring usurers, would unmerci- 
fully deprive them of all they had ac- 
quired. ae » defective for axp>7i, 
as in Jud. xvi. 20. PLIST, the Phil. 
participle of »15, to shake, agitate. The 
reduplicate form conveys the idea of 
violent or excessive agitation. The allu- 
sion is to the violent seizure of a debtor 
by his creditor. See Matt. xviii. 28. 

8. The remainder of the nations con- 


300 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. II. 


All the remainder of the people shall plunder thee ; 
Because of the blood of men, and of the violence done to the 


earth, 


To the city and all that dwell in it. 
9 Wo to him that procureth wicked gain for his house, 

That he may establish his nest on high, 
To be preserved from the power of calamity. 

10 Thou hast devised what is a disgrace to thy house, 
Cutting off many people, and sinning against thyself. 

11 For the stone crieth out from the wall, 
And the brick from the timber answereth it ; 


sisted of those who had escaped the de- 
vastation of the Chaldeans. The terms 
man, earth, and city, are to be understood 
generally, and are not to be restricted to 
the Jews, with their country and its me- 
tropolis. yvay~dan is the genitive of 
object. 

9. In the stanza, comprising this and 
the two following verses, the avarice 
and selfishness of the Chaldeans are de- 
nounced. The phrase »3 3x5 is very 
common in Hebrew. The verb denotes 
to cut, or break off, as the Orientals, 
especially the Chinese do, pieces of silver 
and other metals in their money trans- 
actions with each other. Hence it eame 
to be applied, in a bad sense, to such as 
were greedily occupied with such transac- 
tions, and its derivative »s3, to signify 
wicked gain, lucre. To mark it, in the 
present instance, as specially atrocious, 
yn, wicked, is added. n*3, house, stands 
here for the royal family; 37>, nest, for the 
arz regia, to express its inaccessible 
height, the allusion being taken from the 
nest of the eagle, which is built on high 
rocks, difficult of access. See Job xxxix. 
27, and comp. Numb. xxiv. 21; Jer. 
xlix. 16. 

10. * Thou hast devised disgrace to 
thy house,’’ means thy schemes and 
projects shall issue in the infamy of thy 
family. Instead of nizp, the infinitive 
of msp, the ancient versions have read 
nixp, the preterite of yp. The infini- 
tive may either follow in construction 


msz> preceding, or the following xuin. 
I have adopted the latter, and rendered 
it participially. It properly denotes the 
direct aim of the action predicted by the 
preceding finite verb. For the last clause, 
comp. Prov. viii. 36, xx. 2. 

11. An exquisite instance of bold and 
daring personification, by which the ma- 
terials used in the construction of the 
royal palace, and other sumptuous build- 
ings, at Babylon, are introduced as re- 
sponsively complaining of the injustice 
which they had suffered, either in their 
having been taken from their original 
owners, or in their being made subser- 
vient to the scenes of wickedness that 
were enacted in their presence. Comp. 
Luke xix. 40. The Targ. adds to the 
first line, #74 dix by, because violence 
has been done to it. D°E> occurs only 
here, but from the signification of the 
cognate Syr. ered: connexuit, it has 
been supposed to mean the cross beam by 
which the walls of a building are held 
together, Thus Sym., Theod., and the 
5th vers., otvdecuos, LXX. xdvSapos, 
scarabeus, but which some think was 
originally xavShpioy, which Vitruvius ex- 
plains as signifying a cross-beam. Arab, 
gH, BpSLAST yo, Me pin from 
the wood.” According to the Mishnah, 
the word signifies a half brick, which 
Parchon also gives as the meaning. He 
thus describes it: pvswp prasad “Dp DrES 
bra p11) O46 855 ywasa pws 


cl a i i i i i A 


SS ee eS 





Cuap. II. 


HABAKKUK. 301 


12 Woto him that buildeth a town through bloodshed, 
And establisheth a city through injustice. 

13 Behold! is it not from Jehovah of hosts ? 
So that the people shall labor for the very fire ; 
Yea, the nations shall weary themselves for mere vanity. 


14 For the earth shall be filled 


With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, 


As the waters cover the sea. 


15 Wo to him that giveth drink to his neighbor, . 
Pouring out thy wrath, and making him drunk; 
In order to look upon their nakedness. 


os "san, small bricks prepared in the 
kiln, like pottery, and used in building 
edifices. This interpretation is confirmed 
by the rendering of Aquila, ud(a, what 
is baked, and by the abundant use of 
bricks by the Babylonians, which are still 
visible in the ruins of their city. Citing 
this passage in the Taanith, Rashi ex- 
plains it to be “half a brick which is 
usually laid between two layers of wood,” 
Delitzsch. That it was not the wood 
itself is evident from the following ‘>, 
from or out of the wood, except we take 
the preposition as indicating the material 
of which the beam consisted. In this 
latter case, the words should be rendered, 
And the wooden beam answereth it ; but 
against such construction the parallel 
“"P10, out of the wall, is an insuperable 
objection. 

12, 13. The subject of the third stanza, 
which begins here, was naturally sug- 
gested by the concluding verse of the 
preceding. The riches which enabled 
the king of Babylon to rebuild and en- 
large the royal city, were procured in 
the bloody “wars in which he had en- 
gaged; and the works themselves were 
carried up by people from different parts 
of the empire, and by captives from other 
nations. The preposition 4% prefixed in 
mim? Psa. points out the ultimate cause 
of the destruction of the Babylonian em- 
pire—the overruling providence of God, 
who, in order to give prominence to 
his resistless omnipotence, is designated 


nisas mint, Jehovah of hosts. For 
this epithet, seeonIs.i9. "72 is nota 
poetic form for 3, but is intensive, »1, 
signifying sufficiency, abundance. The 
preposition here points out the final issue 
or result of the labor and fatigue con- 
nected with the erections in question, 
the conflagration and depopulation of 
the city of Babylon. The last two lines 
of verse 13 are found in Jer. li. 58; 
only ws and po have exchanged places, 
py; stands for py", and the defective 
form +3375 for sy3°75. For the destruc- 
tion by fire, comp. Jer. li. 30, 58; for 
her desolation, ver. 43. Hitzig, from the 
mere circumstance of the use of the same 
terms Micah vii. 10, applies the prophecy 
to Jehoiakim ! 

14. This verse is clearly predictive of 
the gospel dispensation, to the introduc- 
tion of which the destruction of the 
Babylonian power was indispensable, in- 
asmuch as it involved the deliverance 
of the Jews from captivity, and their 
re-occupation of their own land before 
the advent of the Messiah. See on Is. 
xi. 9, 11, the former of which verses 
contains a similar prediction of the same 
event. > sea, is used for the bed of the 
sea. 

15. The commencement of the fourth 
stanza. Though the idea of the shame- 
less conduct of drunkards, here depicted, 
may have been borrowed from the profli- 
gate manners of the Babylonian court, 
yet the language is not to be taken lit- 


302 HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. IL 


16 Thou art filled with shame, not with glory ; 
Drink thou also, and show thyself uncireumcized ; 
The cup of Jehovah’s right hand shall come round to thee, 


And great ignominy shall be upon thy glory. 


erally, as if the prophet were describing 
such manners, but, as the sequel shows, 
is applied allegorically to the state of 
stupefaction, prostration, and exposure, to 
which the conquered nations were re- 
duced by the Chaldeans. See on Is. li. 
17, 20; and comp. Ps. lxxv. 8; Jer. 
xxv. 15-28, xlix. 12, li. 7; Ezek. xxiii. 
31, 32; Rev. xiv. 10, xvi. 9, xviii. 6. 
amyn isa collective, and thus is equiva- 
lent to sm-y", in the plural, which is 
required to agree with the suffix in 
Exyis. The latter noun is derived 


from =:9 Arab. yi to be naked, as its 


synonyme 7399, is from n43. In nen 
is a change from the third person to the 
second, for the sake of effect. There not 
being anything in the ancient Greek 
versions corresponding to the 4, is no 
ground for its rejection, since their au- 
thors frequently took liberties even when 
professedly most verbal. mm is not 
the construct of msn or ma mn, bottle, 
but of man, heat, or wrath. Comp. 
BW a-bak| piso Is. lxiii. 6, and li. 17; 
Jer, xxv. 15; Rev. xvi. 19. Delitzsch 
attempts in vain to set aside the signifi- 
cation of pour, as inhering in the root 
med; Arab, , efudit. Cognate 
ad. Targ. 53. soy is the infinitive 
used instead of the participle. The 
language of the concluding clause of 
the verse is expressive of the deep- 
est humiliation on the one hand, and 
of the most haughty wantonness on the 
other. 

16. The preposition in 142% is nega- 
tive, as in aiwn 34) Mone, "Ps. lii, 5. 
The full force of the hemistich i is, “* Thou 
art satiated, but it is with shame, not 
with glory.” Kimchi and others, com- 
paring mb2anm dts, Is. li. 17, and 35 


by, Zech. xii. 2, suppose that in b-yn, 
be thou uncircumcised, there is a trans- 
position of the letters » and », and that 
the verb has originally been by>n, reel 
or stagger. And thus the LXX. (xapdia 
cadevdntt kal oelodnri) have interpreted 
it, and have been followed by the Arab., 
Syr., and Vulg. There is, however, such 
a manifest agreement with pm i>%, 
pudenda eorum, at the close of the pre- 
ceding verse, that the interpretation can- 
not be admitted, In the mouth of a He- 
brew no term could have expressed more 
ineffable contempt. Comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 
36. As the Chaldeans had treated the 
nations which they conquered in the 
most disgusting manner, so they, in their 
turn, should be similarly treated. To 
express the certainty of the event, the 
verbs are in the imperative. See on Is. 
vi. 10. 359m is the future in Niphal, 
and conveys the idea of the cup of suf- 
fering being transferred from one nation 
to another, each in its turn, being made 
to drink of it. Comp. Jer. xxv. 6; Lam, 
iv. 21. 4ibp*p, the Vulg. renders, vomi- 
tus ignominie, as if sompoUnae of *p 
for x*p, vomit, and 44tp, shame. In 
nine MSS, it is read as two words, and 
this etymology is approved by most Jew- 
ish and Christian interpreters. It is, 
however, more in accordance with the 
genius of the Hebrew language, to regard 
it as a reduplicate form of 4*>p, em- 
ployed for the sake of intensity, after i 
form typ: only instead of yibptp w 

have the softer 4itp"p. Comp. the syn 


tee for prdsbde. Thus the LXX. Lise 


ula; Syr. is, ; Targ. & nibp. The 


glory of the ect was to be com- 
pletely eclipsed by the deep disgrace in 
which they should be involved. 





Cuap. II. 


HABAKKUK. 


303 


17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, 
As the destruction of beasts terrifieth them ; 
Because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the 


earth, 
To the city, and all that dwell 


« & 
In it. 


18 What profiteth the graven image which its maker graveth — 
The molten image, and the teacher of falsehood ? 
In which the maker of his work trusteth — 


Making dumb idols. 


19 Woe to him that saith to the wood, Awake ! 


Wake up! to the dumb stone. 
It teach! There it is, 


17. yi23> oan and yoytban are 
genitives of object. That Lebanon is not 
here to be understood literally, but figur- 
atively, of Jerusalem, seems fully estab- 
lished by the prophetic style in other 
passages, especially Jer. xxii. 23; Ezek. 
xvii. 3, 12; Zech. xi. 1. The aptness of 
the figure consists partly in the circum- 
stance, that cedars from that mountain 
were employed in the construction of 
the temple and other houses in Jerusalem, 
1 Kings vi. 9, 10, 18, vii. 2, ix. 10, 11; 
2 Chron. i. 15 ; and partly in its stateli- 
ness and grandeur as the metropolis. 
Against this interpretation, the objections 
do not apply which Delitzsch makes to 
the opinion of those who maintain that 
by Lebanon the land of Palestine is 
meant. >, ¢o cover, is used emphati- 
cally to express the completeness of the 
destruction which should overtake the 
Chaldeans. Similar violence to that 
which they had exercised should be 
brought upon themselves. The 4 in 
21 is a particle of comparison, retaining, 
indeed, its ordinary conjunctive power, 
but also introducing a clause designed to 
illustrate the preceding. Of this idiom, 
the following are instances: bray> bts 
Fay amaa2 9 yy aatby, Man is born 
to trouble, AND (As) birds of prey fly aloft, 
Jobv.7. nyu Ans Wan Pen WR 
tox. For the ear trieth words, AND (As) 
the palate tasteth food. This construc- 
tion entirely obviates the difficulty which 


necessarily attaches to the attempts that 
have been made to interpret the nim, 
beasts, of the inhabitants of Palestine. 
The prophet compares the confusion and 
destruction which should come upon the 
enemy of the Jews to those experienced 
by the wild beasts when brought into 
circumstances from which they cannot 
escape. mnn signifies to be broken, 
broken in pieces, destroyed, confounded, 
terrified. In the present form msn, 
the Yod is substituted for the Dagesh in 
the regular form JAN, as Fenn for 
any, Is, xxxiii. 1. The Nun appended 
is not paragogic, but the verbal suffix of 
the third feminine plural, agreeing with 
nivn3. There is no sufficient ground 
for changing } into 5, though the authors 
of some of the ancient versions may have 
thus read. For the last clause, see on 
verse 8. 

18, 19. These verses expose the folly 
of idolatry to which the Babylonians 
were wholly addicted. It might be sup- 
posed, from all the other stanzas having 
been introduced by a denunciatory *in, 
wo, that a transposition has here taken 
place, and that the nineteenth ought to 
be read before the eighteenth: and 
Green has thus placed them in his trans- 
lation ; but there is a manifest propriety 
in anticipating the inutility of idols, in 
close connection with what the prophet 
had just announced respecting the down- 
fall of Babylon, before delivering his 


304 HABAKKUK. 


Overlaid with gold and silver, 


But there is no breath at all within it. 


20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple ; 
Keep silence before him all the earth. 


denunciation against their worshippers 
themselves, “>, in both instances, is used 
as a relative pronoun, as in Gen. iii. 19. 
iv. 25; Is. lvii. 20. The idol is called 
‘a teacher of falsehood,” on account of 
the lying oracles that were connected 
with its worship. For these verses, com- 
pare Is. xliv. 9-20; Jer. x. In the 
latter part of the nineteenth verse, the 
language is highly and pointedly ironi- 
eal. mai > xm, i teach! is an em- 
phatic form of putting a question which 
requires a negative reply. 11" forms a 
paronomasia with m>‘v in the preceding 
verse. sam mon, there it is. Such is 


place — it not being followed as usual by 
the accusative, but for the sake of mak- 
ing the idol more prominent, by the 
nominative case. 

20. In striking contrast with the utter 
nihility of idols, Jehovah is here intro- 
duced, at the close of the prophecy, as 
the invisible Lord of all, occupying his 
celestial temple, whence he is ever ready 
to interpose his omnipotence for the de- 
liverance and protection of his people 
and the destruction of their enemies. 
Comp. Is. xxvi. 21. Such a God it 
becomes all to adore in solemn and pro- 
found silence. Ps, lxxvi. 8, 9; Zeph. 


the force of the interjection man in this i7; Zech, ii, 13. 





CHAPTER III. 


TxouesH forming a distinct whole, this chapter is intimately connected with the two pre- 
ceding, the subjects contained in which it presupposes, and is evidently designed to afford 
consolation to the Jews during the national calamities there anticipated. It exhibits a 
regular ode beginning with a brief but simple and appropriate exordium; after which 
follows the main subject, which is treated in a manner perfectly free and unrestrained, as 
the different topics rose one after another in the powerfully excited mind of the prophet; 
and finishes with an epigrammatic resumption of the point first adverted to in the intro- 
duction, and the practical lesson which the piece was intended to teach. 

With respect to the body of the ode, interpreters are greatly divided in opinion. The 
Fathers generally, and after them many Catholic commentators, and among Protestants, 
Cocceius, Bengel, Roos, and others, apply the whole chapter, with certain modifications, 
to New Testament times, and subject it to all the uncertainty of imaginary interpreta- 
tion. But the principal point of disagreement relates to the theophania, or Divine inter- 
position, so sublimely set forth. ver. 3—15. According to the Targum, Abarbanel, Aben- 
ezra, Tarnovius, Munster, Clarius, Drusius, Schnurrer, Herder, Michaelis, Green, Lowth, 
Tingstadius, Eichhorn, Justi, Hesselberg, Ackermann. and Ewald, the prophet adverts to 
the wonderful displays of the power and majesty of God during the early history of the 
Hebrews. Maurer, Hitzig, and Delitzsch, on the other hand, contend that the future in- 
terposition of Jehovah for the destruction of the Chaldeans, is what he exclusively con- 
templates. The last-mentioned author has not only gone at great length, and with much 
miuuteness, into the subject, but appears to have exhausted all his critical and exegetical 





ee 


ee a 





eS ee ee 


Cuap. III. HABAKKUK. 305 


ingenuity in his attempt to establish his hypothesis. Taking for granted that si2 ", ver. 
8, cannot, by any possibility, be construed otherwise than to express the strict futurity 
of the advent predicated, he proceeds to show, from what he considers to be the or- 
ganic structure of the ode; from the connection of obs -t and $491, ver. 16; and from 
certain features of the picture itself, that what he calls the lyric-prophetical view is alone 
to be admitted. I must, however, confess, that after a careful examination of his argu- 
ments, I can discover nothing in them that goes to overturn the historical position 
adopted by the numerous writers above mentioned. That nothing in the shape of a reg- 
ular and specific recital of distinct facts is exhibited in the tableau, cannot fairly be 
urged against this interpretation, since such a recital would ill accord with the enthusi- 
asm and impetuosity which are so characteristic of the ode asa species of poetry. The 
abrupt and rapid transitions of the prophet did not admit of more than a slight, though 
sublimely figurative allusion, to one or two localities, which it was necessary to specify, 
in order to call up the general scene of events to the mind of the reader: all the rest is 
left to be supplied by his familiar acquaintance with the sacred national records. What 
he aims at is to produce a powerful impression by condensing, within the shortest pos- 
sible limits, a view of the magnalia Dei, as exhibited in these records. And this he does 
by giving utterance to the total impression which they produced upon his own mind, 
rather than by furnishing a detailed historical description. Regarding the composition 
in this light, the obscurity and apparent incoherence which attach to certain parts of it 
are at once accounted for, 

As parallels to this ode, we may adduce Deut. xxxiii. 2—5; Jud. v. 4,5; Ps. Ixviii. 7, 
8, Ixxvii. 13—20, exiv.; Is. lxiii. 11—14. That the Holy Spirit availed himself, so to 
speak, of some of these passages in presenting the subject to the view of the prophet, 
there can, I think, be little doubt. The agreement in point of phraseology, especially as 
it respects Ps. Ixxvii. is most palpable. Some, indeed, have maintained the priority of 
our ode to the Psalm; but Delitzsch has proved, by an elaborate collation .of passages 
and expressions, that this hypothesis is entirely without foundation, and that Habakkuk 
had the Psalm brought to his mind, just as he had the song of Moses called up to his 
recollection. 

The following description of this sublime ode, by the master pen of Bishop Lowth, is 
not more beautiful than just: ‘‘ The prophet, indeed, illustrates this subject throughout 
with equal magnificence; selecting from such an assemblage of miraculous incidents, 
the most noble and important, displaying them in the most splendid colors, and embel- 
lishing them with the sublimest imagery, figures, and diction, the dignity of which is so 
heightened and recommended by the superior elegance of the conclusion, that were it 
not fora few shades, which the hand of time has apparently cast over it in two or three 
passages, no composition of the kind, would, I believe, appear more elegant or more per- 
fect than this poem.” Lect. xxviii. Whether the hand of time has really cast any shades 
over it will appear in the sequel. 

That it was designed for use in public worship, hob both from the inscription and 
the subscription, as well as from the musical term 7 2 bo, Selah, occurring verses 3, 9, 13. 

The chapter begins with the title and introduction, ver. 1,2. Habakkuk then repre-’ 
sents Jehovah as appearing in glorious majesty on Sinai, 3,4; describes the ravages of 
the plague in the desert, 5; the consternation into which the nations were thrown by the 
victorious approach of the Hebrews to Canaan, and their wars with the inhabitants, 
6—10; specially refers to the celestial phenomenon at Gibeon, 11; and then sets forth the 
auspicious results of the interposition of God on behalf of his people, 12—15. The pro- 
phet concludes by resuming the subject of the introduction, 16; and strongly asserting 
his unshaken confidence in God in the midst of anticipated calamity, 17—19. 





1 A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet: with triumphal music. 


1, nden, usually rendered prayers, supplications, etc., or not. Hence it is ap- 
comprehends all kinds of devotional com- plied to all the Psalms of David collect- 
position, whether abounding in petitions, ively, Ps. Ixxii. 20; and is otherwise 

39 


306 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. III. 


2 O Jehovah! I heard the report of thee, I was afraid ; 
O Jehovah! revive thy work in the midst of the years ; 


only used in the inscriptions of Psalms 
xvii. Ixxxvi. xc. cii, cxlii. The term is 
derived from $s, to separate, distin- 
guish ; cognate to n5B; and so to form 
an opinion or judgment, to judge, give a 
verdict. In Hithpael the verb signifies 
to apply to a judge for a favorable decis- 
ion, to supplicate, pray, etc.; and is em- 
ployed at the commencement of the song 
of Hannah, 1 Sam, ii. 1. Though the 
only precatory sentences are those con- 
tained in ver. 2, yet there are several in- 
stances of direct address to God, which 
impart to the ode one of the characteris- 
tic feature of prayer. The Lamed pre- 
fixed in pspam> is that of authorship. 
mistad ty. That this is a musical term 
seems beyond dispute, from similar terms 
occurring in the titles of the psalms, such 
as moran ty, pos mi" 5x, etc. For 
the explanation of the noun, which only 
occurs here, and in the singular 4**3%3, in 
the title of Ps. vii. different methods 
have been proposed. Bauer, Herder, 
Perschke, De Wette, Rosenmiiller, Lee, 
Hitzig, and Maurer, have recourse to the 


Arabic oa, anxius, tristis, mastus 


fuit, and render p*3%x¢—%y, after the man- 
ner of elegies, but there seems no reason 
deducible either from the present ode or 
from the Psalm, why they should be 
‘thus characterized, or why they should 
be sung to a plaintive tune, but the con- 
trary. Others, as Wahl, Justi, Gesenius, 


derive the word from the Syriac hwy 
. 9 


in Pael Ww cecinit, wh 1 Ke 
; » cecinit, whence amy 


9 
carmen, cantus, to which it has justly 
been objected, that it is too vague and 
indefinite to admit of adoption. The 
LXX., indeed, have ydauos in the Psalm, 
and here g57s ; but without any apparent 
reference to the specific meaning of the 
term. Other philologists more reason- 
ably content themselves with maw, an in- 


digenous Hebrew verb in common use, 
signifying to err, wander, reel, etc. This 
interpretation Aquila, Symm., and the 
fifth Greek version so far support, ren- 
dering ém dyvonudtwy, which Jerome 
adopts, on the principle that m3 signi- 
fies to sin through ignorance. To this 
derivation Hengstenberg has recently 
given his adhesion (Comm. on Psalms, 
vol. i, p. 144), but most preposterously 
affirms, that in our ode the sins or crimes 
of the Chaldeans are intended. There 
is nothing either in the Psalm or in the 
song of Habakkuk to warrant the ap- 
propriation of any such signification of 
the term. ‘The most probable explana- 
tion is that given by Delitzsch, who is 
of opinion that 44-13 means a dithyram- 
bos, or cantio erratica, a species of rhyth- 
mical composition, which, from its enthu- 
siastic irregularity, is admirably adapted 
for songs of victory or triumph. It 
is obvious, however, from the estab<- 
lished use of the preposition ty «pon, 
after the manner of, or accompanied with, 
in the titles of the Psalms, that the plu- 
ral m*5‘:v, to which, in like manner, it 
is here prefixed, must be understood as 
describing a corresponding kind of music 
with which the ode was to be accompa- 
nied. The translation of Theodotion, 
imép Tay éExovoiacuay, t.é. as Jerome in- 
terprets the words, pro voluntariis, has, 
in all probability, some such-reference. 

2. The sx3, report of Jehovah, here 
referred to by the prophet, does not 
mean what God had communicated to 
him, but a report respecting Jehovah, or 
the punishment which he had threatened 
to inflict upon the Jews for their sins, 
The genitive is that of object. That it 
cannot refer to what follows in the ode 
is certain, since the exhibition there giv- 
en of the Divine interposition for the 
overthrow of the enemies of his people 
was calculated to inspire the prophet 
with joy, and not with the fear of which 


a ee 








y 





Cuar. IIE. 


HABAKKUK. 


307 


In the midst of the years make it known: 


In wrath remember mercy. 
3 God came from Teman ; 


The Holy One from mount Paran: Pause. 


he declares he was conscious. His prayer 
also, that while punishment was being 
inflicted, God would exercise pity, shows 
that the Jews, and not the Chaldeans, 
were to be the subjects of the infliction. 
It may, therefore, be regarded as certain, 
that what he has in view is the predic- 
tion chap. i. 6-11. The fear with which 
the prophet was seized, he particularly 
describes ver. 16. By 3528, thy work, 

Abarbanel, Kimchi ,Schnurrer, Justi, and 
some others, understand the Jews, on the 
ground that they are designatcd the bys, 
work of Jehovah’s hands, Is, xlv. 11; but 


the simple occurrence of the same word, 


irrespective of the specific claims of the 
connection, cannot justify such a con- 
struction of the meaning. In chap. i. 5, 
the term is used of the Divine judgment 
upon the Jews, as it also is Is. v. 12, and 
of that upon their enemies, Ps. lxiv. 9. 
This latter sense, which involves the ex- 
ercise of the power and goodness of God 
on behalf of his people, alone suits the 
present context. Comp. Ps. xe. 16. 
What the prophet prays for is the re- 
newal of such interposition. This he 
expresses by the strong term rtm, guick- 
en, restore to life, which suggests the 
idea of a cessation of the avenging and 
delivering power of the Most High. It 
had been, in regard to its exertion, asif 
it had been dead, and required to be 
called forth afresh into action. Thus 
Jarchi: S453 anny ws Jesp ann 
Hy WNW mAs aw DAPS wesw 15 
wom ans waidS onwncs. — Thy 
former work, when thou didst avenge us 
of our enemies, in the midst of the years 
of the calamity in which we live, revive 
it, i. @. rouse it up, cause it to return. 
Comp. Is. li. 9, 10. No stress is to be 
laid on the phrase 6-23 2773, im the 
midst of the years, from which Bengel 
deduced so much fanciful support to his 


chronological calculations; maintaining 
that the middle point of the years of 
the world is meant. D7: are unques- 
tionably the years, or period of affliction, 
which was to come upon the Jewish peo- 
ple. 2972 isnot to be taken in the 
strict acceptation of the middle point of 
any given period of time, but is, as fre- 
quently, only a more emphatic preposi- 
tive form, instead of 3,7. The meaning, 
therefore, simply is, During the period 
of suffering, or, in the course of our 
punishment by the Chaldeans, interpose 
for our deliverance. Symm. éyrbs ray 
évuavtav. To give pathos to the Jan- 
guage, the phrase is repeated ; and y>44in 
is added, as synonymous with 7545p, 
the suffix of which is to be understood, 
though not expressed. The verb 3, to 
know, is here used in the sense of expe- 
riencing, knowing by experience. En", 
the infinitive, is to be regarded as an ac- 
cusative. Comp. Ps. xxv. 6: FITTS 
man chive 2 yoni nin. It is 
merely necessary to ‘exhibit the version 
of this verse as now found in the text of 
the LXX. to show that it can only have 
originated in the amalgamation of dif- 
ferent readings, some of them probably 
marginal glosses, and that it would be 
most unwarrantable to attempt any cor- 
rection of the Hebrew text by it: Kipie, 
civaxtKoa Thy axohy gov, Kal epoBASnr, 
kaTravonoa Tk &pya cod Kal ééornr ev 
Héow Sv0 Cdwv yywoShon ev 76 eyylCey 
Ta ern emiyywodnon év 7d wapeivar Toy 
kKaupov avadeaxdyon, ev re TapaxS iva TH 
Wuxiv mov, év dpyh eAdous uvno dijon. 

3. mits is not used by any of the 
minor prophets except Habakkuk, and 
by him only here, and chap. i. 11. It 
occurs four times in Daniel, and once in 
Isaiah, but never in Jeremiah or Ezekiel. 
There is no foundation whatever for the 


308 HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. III. 


His splendor covered the heavens, 
And the earth was full of his praise. 


position assumed by Gesenius and some 
others, that this use of the singular be- 
longs to the later Hebrew, though it is 
allowed to belong to the poetic diction. 
It is employed forty times in the book of 
Job, one of the most ancient specimens 
of Hebrew composition extant, and twice 
by Moses, Deut. xxxii. winp, Holy, 
which is here parallel to #158 , God, also 
occurs in this application to express the 
absolute purity of the Divine Being, Job 
vi. 10; Is. xl. 25; and in the plural, 
D wap, Prov. ix. 10, xxx. 8; Hos. xii, 
1. Delitzsch contends, that, as sa is 
uninfluenced by any preceding preterite, 
it cannot possibly be taken otherwise 
than as strictly future in signification, as 
it isin form. But this is not the only 
instance in which the future stands ab- 
solutely at the commencement of a sen- 
tence or paragraph, yet clearly indicating 
a past transaction, Thus Num. xxiii. 7, 
Dos, pha “emer; Jud. ii. 1, nbz 
Drys27 tory; 2 Sam. iii. 33, nicon 
22s nin? $22; Job iii. 3, Dis sass 
Sanbag ; Ps. 1xxx.9, s*OM E7787 YER. 
The idiom, in these and similar cases, is 
sufficiently accounted for on the princi- 
ple that the speaker places himself, in 
imagination, anterior to the action ex- 
pressed by the verb, and thus, regarding 
it as still future, puts the verb in that 
tense. Having prayed that God would 
remember the mercy which he had 
shown to his people in ancient days, the 
prophet has his mind carried back to 
their affliction in Egypt, in their deliv- 
erance from which that mercy was sig- 
nally displayed; and assuming that as 
his point of observation, he proceeds at 
once to describe the Theophania as fu- 
ture in regard to such position. The 
past, thus implied, though not expressed, 
as completely modifies a future tense, as 
if a preterite, or any qualifying particle, 
had preceded it. "mM, Teman, the 
LXX. retain as a proper name: the 


Targ., Syr., Theod., Vulg., and many 
modern versions read, the south. ‘The 
word is doubtless to be taken as desig- 
nating the country to the south of Judea, 
and east of Idumea, in which latter 
country Mount Paran (q>8£ "n) was 
situated. Some, indeed, have endeavored 
to indentify this mountain with Sinai, on 


the ground that \Joas col,, Wady 


Pheiran, which extends north-west from 
Sinai, is the same as 42NB “271, the 
desert of Paran, mentioned in Scripture. 
But although this desert might have 
stretched so far towards the south-west as 
to touch upon the Wady, and so give it 
the name, it is certain, from Paran being 
mentioned in connection with Kadesh 
and Beersheba, that the wilderness of 
that name extended to the southern con- 
fines of Palestine, including the moun- 
tainous region tothe west of the Ghor, 
or great valley stretching from the Dead 
Sea to the Elanitic gulf. In 1 Kings xi. 
18, it is spoken of as lying between Mi- 
dian and Egypt. From Sinai occurring 
along with Seir and Paran, Deut. xxxiii. 
2, and with Seir and the country of 
Edom, Jud. v. 4, 5, it is probable that 
Habakkuk here alludes to the regions to 
the south of Palestine generally, as the 
theatre of the Divine manifestations to 
Israel, only, like Moses and Deborah, 
specifying the two points nearer to that 
country. In this view, his omission of 
Sinia, which they notice, is not of mate- 
rial moment. The glorious displays of 
the power and majesty of Jehovah which 
had been made in that quarter occupied 
his thoughts, and inspired him with feel- 
ings of the most exalted devotion. =>, 
Selah. This word, which occurs thrice 
in this ode, and seventy-three times in 
the Psalms, has been variously inter- 
preted. That it is a musical sign is 
now almost universally admitted. It is 
found at the end of certain sections, or 
stropes, and always at the close of a verse, 











Cuap. III. 


HABAKKUK. 


309 


4 The brightness was like that of the sun, 


Rays streamed from his hand, 


Yet the concealment of his glory was there. 


except Hab. iii. 3,9; Ps, lv. 20, lvii. 4; 
where however, as always, it ends the 
hemistich, Sometimes it occurs at the 
end of a Psalm, as Ps. iii. ix. and xxiv. 
The current, and apparently the tradi- 
tionary interpretation, is that of the 
Targ. 1372 5; Aq. def; Symm. some- 
times eis tov aléva; Theod. sometimes 
eis TéAos; the V. Greek version, d:a7ay- 
7és; but Symm. and Theod. most com- 
monly coincide with the LXX., who 
uniformly render, didpardua This last 
translation is decidedly entitled to the 
preference, in so far as it confines the idea 
to the music, though the exact meaning 
even of this Greek term has been matter 
of dispute. Suidas, however, seems to 
come nearest to the mark, when he gives 
as its meaning péAous évadAayh, a change 
of the modulation, and with him Hesy- 
chius agrees, explaining it by Héous 
diadAayh. ‘The hypothesis that nto is 
merely an abbreviation, consisting of the 
initial letters of three Hebrew words, is 

altogether gratuitous, there not being the 
least shadow of evidence that the Jews, 
in ancient times, ever employed abbrevi- 
ations. Pfeiffer,in his work, Die Musik 
der Alten Hebr. p. 17, proposes to ex- 
plain the term by the Arab yk ii, 
membrum, or section; Prof. Lee, by 
Elo, $YLo, which he renders, Dez 
invocatio, and derives from so; 


he blessed; but neither of the deriva- 
tions will suit all the passages in which 
it occurs. Indeed, dless! or praise! 
would come in most incongruously in 
such connections as Ps. vii. 5, xxxix. 5, 
11; lii. 3. Of the two Hebrew roots to 
which the word has been referred, tbo, 
to raise, elevate, and >> , which, besides 
signifying to raise, has been supposed to 
be equivalent to nbs, to rest, pause, the 
latter, on the whole, seems to deserve 


the preference. There are several in- 
stances in which the letter 3 has been 
softened into », as in spel and Td; . 
alr) and =125 ; just as, in most cases, we 
find it expressed in Arabic by , y. This 


derivation, in which Gesenius finally 
acquiesced, has been approved of by 
Delitzsch and Hengstenberg. The term 
may be regarded as a substantive, signi- 
fying silence or pause; designed, in all 
probability, to command a cessation of 
the song or chant, while the instruments 
either repeated what had just been 
played, or introduced an interlude be- 
tween the parts. At the end of a psalm 
it may have been intended to prevent a 
repetition on the part of the singers, 
while the instrumental music continued. 
Having, by a solemn pause, prepared the 
mind for the contemplation of the mani- 
fested glory of Jehovah, the prophet pro- 
ceeds to describe this glory in the most 
sublime and magnificent language. By 
mbm splendor or brightness, as the Targ., 
Kimchi, and Hitzig interpret; nor does 
it here express the actual praises of the 
inhabitants of the earth produced by the 
effulgence of Deity, for the effect of this 
effulgence is described, ver. 6, to be fear 
and trembling; but matter of praise, or 
the glory which was calculated to call 
forth universal adoration. 

4, By -4s we are not here to under- 
stand light simply, but the sun as the 
source of light. Comp. Job xxxi. 26, 
xXxxvii, 21. The Kametz of the article 
in > renders the noun more definite, 
mann, which Heidenheim would con- 
nect with VIsNn and Hitzig with tn> 2mm, 
in the scutes verse, can have ro other 
nominative than 35, which, like other 
substantives in the Oriental languages, 
expressive of fire or light, is conceived 
to be of the feminine gender, or it may 
be regarded as neuter in signification. 


310 


5 Before him went the plague ; 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. III. 


The burning pestilence followed him. 

6 He stood, and made the earth to tremble ; 
He looked, and caused the nations to shake ; 
The old mountains were shattered in pieces, — 


The ancient hills sank down — 


His ancient ways. 


and so taking the feminine of the verb. 
That by t2"p7 , Aorns, we are here to 
understand rays, is obvious from the 
connection, from the comparison of the 
rising sun scattering his rays upon the 
earth to the gazelle, Ps. xxii. 1, and 
from its being common with the Arabs 
to compare them to the horns of that 
animal. Thus the Arab. wry? cornu 


animalis, latus superior pars solis, primt 
yadiis solis. Kamoos and Djauhari. 
Hence, the verb 1p signifies to emit 
rays, Exod. xxxiv. 29, 30, 35. Though 
in the dual, the noun, like others of that 
number which describe objects naturally 
existing in pairs, is here expressive of the 
plural. Comp. evba9 yarns, Lev. xi. 
23; 0°20 vdd, 1 Sam. ii. 13; Des42 bo, 
Ezek. xxi. 12; and see my note on Is, 
vi. 2; macy mea, Zech. iii. 9, The 
phrase $7979 from his hand, is equiva- 
lent to 329272 , from him; and a verb of 
flowing, streaming, or the like, must be 
supplied. 4% is the dative of possession. 
ne, there, refers to the scene of splendor 
just described, which, though so exces- 
sively bright, instead of. exhibiting the 
Divine glory, only veiled or concealed it. 
Comp. Ps. civ. 2. The LXX., Syr., Aq., 
and Symm., have read rw, Gok he put, 
instead of ry-, and there, and are fol- 
lowed by Hitzig and Maurer, but this 
rendering is less apt. ¥, in such con- 
nection denotes majesty or glory rather 
than power. Comp. Ps. exxxii. 8, 
xxviii. 61. For m3» many MSS. read 
439, the regular affix. Whether the 
substratum of the vivid representation 
here furnished of the glorious majesty of 
of Jehovah be the symbol of the Divine 


presence exhibited upon Mount Sinai, 
Exod. xxiv. 17, or the Shekinah which 
accompanied the Hebrews through the 
desert, chap. xvi. 7,10; Lev. ix. 23, x]. 
35, etc., cannot be determined. See on 
ver. 3, 

5. aa » from 52>, ¢o inflame, has 
two leading significations, that of light- 
ning, or flame, and that of hot, or dburn- 
ing fever. ‘The latter is required in the 
present case to correspond to =a", plague 
in the preceding hemistich: a circum- 
stance which forbids the adoption of the 
precarious rendering, birds of prey, 
though supported by the Syr., Aq., 
Symm., Theod., the V. Greek version, 
Michaelis, Schnurrer, Herder, Kofod, 
Dahl, Rosenmiiller, and others; as well 
as that of lightning, adopted by Kalinsky, 
Wahl, Bauer and others; and burning 
coals, a8 in our common version. ‘Thus 
Kimchi: S185. jena, 227. 25. F245 
simi, gw snide yo1,. mise midwa 
TN) MEN Men wns NAIM san 
mona, te. 5 w— corresponds to -a7, 
the same thing being expressed in differ- 
ent words. ‘The word has the same sig- 
nification. Deut. xxxii. 24, and denotes 
the fever, which consists in a burning 
heat, and speedily causes death.” The 
Vulg. has, « Et egredietur diabolus ante 
pedes ejus!” tad sx> or $m, means 
to track or follow any one. Here it is 
opposed to anz£S, before him. What 
the prophet has in view, would seem to 
be the plagues with which the enemies 
of the Hebrews were visited, of which 
we have an instance 1 Sam. v. 9, 11. 

6. "749° “Way , forms an easy and ele- 
gant paronomasia, and, at the same time, 
exhibits one of the boldest, most abrupt, 


Cuap. III. 


HABAKKUK. 


oll 


7 I saw the tents of Cushan in trouble ; 
The tent-curtains of Midian trembled. 
8 Was it against the rivers it burned, O Jehovah ? 


and sublime turns to be found in sacred 
poetry. While Jehovah is marching 
forth for the deliverance of his people, 
he stops all of a sudden in his progress, 
the immediate effects of which are uni- 
versal consternation and terror. Nature, 
in her strongest and most ancient forma- 
tions, is broken in pieces before him. 
The inhabitants of the earth tremble at 
his look. 4%) may either be the Poel 
of "172 , to measure, or the Pilel of 4%, 


which, like the Arab. gl, signifies zo 


be agitated. ‘The latter derivation best 
suits the connection. LXX. écarevSy 
n yi Targ. seas sory. Arab. 


UII masysys. Comp. the cog- 
nate »*%. Thus Gesenius, Lee, Maurer, 
Ewald, Heidenheim, Hesselberg, Del- 
itzsch. The primary idea conveyed by 
“n2 is that of bounding, springing up, 
as a person does when overtaken by sud- 
den fear. In wsbN » we have all the 
force of intensive verbs, heightened in 
effect by the harsh sound of the redupli- 
cated Tzade. . v2 signifies to break or 
dash in pieces, and also to scatter, dis- 
perse. For sy--4y97 and Doty rhyza, 
comp. Gen, xlix. 26; Deut. xxxiii. 15. 
44 no4o missin, ie -sviciant ways, I 
consider to be epexegetical of the preced- 
ing; and nis is to be taken in the 
same sense as athe in the sentence 
bg O05 mows xin, Job xl. 19, which 
describes the hippopotamus as “ the first 
or principal of the ways of God,’’ 2. e. his 
creative acts, his works. The words may 
be resolved into 44 myx pb$y niodn, 
or into yab4y race bn . The mountains 
which Jehovah had created of old, and 
which had resisted the revolutions of 
ages, were now shattered in pieces, and 
dissipated like dust before him, The 
irresistibility of his power, and the utter 
imbecility of the most formidable ene- 


mies of his people, are the ideas conveyed 
by the language of the prophet. 

7. 38 mon, “under affliction,” is 
more expressive than 4:83, “im afflic- 
tion,” as it suggests the idea of a heavy 
load by which those spoken of were op- 
pressed. 44>, Cushan, is now generally 
admitted to be the same as w25, Cush, 
as 7045, Lotan, Gen. xxxvi. 20, is only 
another form of w4> , Lot ; but whether 
it be intended to designate the African 
or the Arabian Cush is disputed. Ge- 
senius, Maurer, Delitzsch, and others, 
contend for the former; but the connec- 
tion of the name with that of >", 
Midian, is decidedly in favor of the latter. 
For a satisfactory refutation of the position 
adopted by Gesenius, that Cush, and all 
the tribes connected with this name, are 
only to be sought in Africa, see Robinson’s 
Calmet, art. Cush. That any reference 
to Cushan-rishathaim, Jud. iii. 10, is in- 
tended, does not appear. Midian appears 
to have stretched from the eastern shores 
of the Elanitic Gulf to Mount Sinai, 
and the frontiers of Moab. Edrisi speaks 
of a town called (.»5 0, Madian, 


about five days’ journey from Ailah, or 
Akabah, and six from Tubuk. The 
“tents” and “curtains” describe the 
nomadic mode of life as still found 
among the Bedawin of the Arabian des- 
erts. nmisons, the coverings of the tents, 
so called from their tremulous motion 
when hanging down like curtains and 
affected by the wind. The word is here 
used merely as a synonyme of Dots 
tents ; and both are put by eaatorky a 
for the persons dwelling in them. 

8. The prophet rising in his graphic 
description of the ancient manifestations 
of Jehovah, now by a bold apostrophe 
inquires why the rivers were affected by 
them? ‘Was it on account of any cause 
in the rivers? The implied answer is, 
No; and the true cause is assigned at the 


312 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. III. 


Was thine anger against the rivers ? 
Was thy wrath against the sea ? 
That thou didst ride upon thy horses, 


In thy chariots of victory. 


9 Naked and bared was thy bow, 
“ Sevens of spears” was the word: Pause. 


Thou didst cleave the earth into rivers, 


close of the verse — the safe and victori- 
ous deliverance of the Israelites from 
Egypt, and their introduction into Ca- 
naan. nym is in the vocative, and the 
subject of the verb 41 is FES, in the 
second hemistich. pen , the rivers, 
mean the waters of the Red Sea, and the 
Jordan, which were dried up to allow 
them to pass over on foot. The former 
is not indeed a river, but may not in- 
aptly be included under the term, on 
account of the flowing of the tide, which 
is said to rise at Suez to about the height 
of seven feet. On the miraculous divis- 
ion of the sea, recorded Exod. xiv., it 
was made to go or flow back the whole 
night, ver. 21. For the application of 
“m2 to the stream tide of the Mediter- 
ranean, See Jonah ii. 4. That the rivers 
of Cush should be intended is altogether 
out of the question, Specifically, how- 
ever, to mark out the Red Sea, it is after- 
wards expressly called ©» in the third 
hemistich. Comp. as parallel with the 
present verse, Exod. xv, ; Ps, Ixxvii. 13, 
exiv. 3,5. Jehovah is here, and in the 
following verses, represented as a mighty 
and victorious warrior, giving orders to 
his army, and, in triumphant progress, 
carrying all before him. Comp. Exod. 
xv. 3, Xiv. 14. 58, anger, and; M733 5 
wrath, are synonymes, only the latter is 
the stronger of the two, signifying unre- 
strained indignation ; from “29 , to pass 
over, or beyond a boundary. By « horses” 
and “ chariots,” there is no necessity for 
our understanding either the angels, or 
thunder and lightning, as some would 
interpret. They are merely figurative 
expressions, designed to carry out the 
metaphor adopted from military opera- 


tions. In the phrase myss> ona ae, 
supply Sz , upon, before the former word, 
and repeat m4aD"2 , chariots, before the 
latter. Comp. for instances of similar 
construction, 5°97 "483%, 2 Sam. xxii, 
33. 39 °Dma, Ps. Ixxi. 7; pwt Fa52, 
Ezek, xvi. 27.—nz3d7 has in such con- 
nection, the specific signification of vic- 
tory, though the idea of salvation or 
deliverance, as the result, is not to be 
lost sight of. 

9. The combination =4zn m273, which 
forms a paronomasia, determines the sig- 
nification of »y», as here employed, to 
be that of being dare or naked, and not 
that of rousing or exciting. For though 
the Piel ->4» is used of the lifting up 
of a spear, there would be no propriety 
in thus applying it to a bow: whereas 
the substantive 7773, nakedness, having 
just been employed, nothing was more 
natural than to add "42m, ¢o be bared 
— »5» being thus cognate in signification 
with m3, from which ->"¥ is derived, 
and with « “IZ. ATA is used adjectively, 
as in met ny bale , Ezek. xvi. 7. 
sizn isnot ‘the second, but the third per- 
son singular in Niphal, having for its 
nominative nop, which is of the com- 
mon gender, Some of the moderns have 
explained nap, of the rainbow, than 
which nothing can be conceived more 
incongruously out of place in a passage 
containing a sublime poetical description 
of warlike operations. The making bare 
the bow, refers to the removal of the cover 
in which it was carefully wrapped, to 
prevent its receiving injury, or of such a 
leathern case as the ywputds, Kwpurds 
corytus, of the Greeks and Romans. Of 
the following words, 38 nyu Mie32» 


Cuap. III. 


HABAKKUK. 


313 


10 The mountains saw thee, they were in pain ; 
The inundation of water overflowed ; 


The abyss uttered its voice, 
It raised its hands on high. 


upwards of one hundred different inter- 
pretations have been proposed. That 
which I have adopted appears to me best 
to suit the connection. It keeps up the 
spirit of the poem, and is fully justified 
on the simplest and most legitimate ety- 
mological grounds. That nh>2 > cannot 
signify oaths, is determined by the cir- 
cumstance that * the oaths of the tribes,” 
the rendering of our common version, 
affords no tolerable sense as here intro- 
duced, whether we regard the tribes as 
the persons swearing, or as those to 
whom oaths were sworn. The other sig- 
nification of ;y42¥ , is seven, a heptade, 
or what is made up of seven. It is else- 
where literally applied only to this num- 
ber of weeks; but in connection with 
language so highly figurative as that of 
our prophet in the present chapter, no 
objection can reasonably be taken against 
its being used otherwise than as a desig- 
nation of time. It appears to have been 
appropriated by him, to express the per- 
fection, fulness, or abundance, of the 
number, instead of the usual numeral 
223 or my23, when employed symboli- 
cally as a ‘sacred and indefinite number. 
mera signifies tribe, but also, as DIU, 
2 Sam. xviii. 14, a dance or spear ; and 
that the latter signification is that in 
which Habakkuk here uses it may be 
inferred from his using it in this accep- 
tation in the 14th verse. Thus the Syr. 
Bh. 
by word, promise, epicinium, commander, 
ete. I take it in the first of these signi- 
fications, as specifically designating the 
military order, or word of command. 
Compare Ps. Ixviii. 12. s<k—yn" “378 ; 
“the Lord gave the word,” etc. Thus, 


“28 » like the Arab. t, signifies to 


“7a has been variously rendered 


order, command. The meaning of the 
40 


prophet will therefore be, that Jehovah 
prepared his bow for battle, and ordered 


‘ numerous spears to be produced ; in other 


words, that he brought the most formid- 
able and effective instrumentality to bear 
against the enemies of his people. The 
nominative to ran is not VS » as some 
would construe ‘ie ‘words, hee mn" un- 
derstood from the suffix in TAPE - 
Comp. "3°7723 pons spat, Ps. Ixxviii. 
15. Before rm mann "supply % or 3; to 
cleave into rivers. The effect of the Di- . 
vine command is sublimely represented 
under the idea of that which is frequently 
produced by earthquakes, when immense 
quantities of water gush out of the fis- 
sures, and flow like rivers through the 
country. The whole verse is distin- 
guished for its sublimity and beauty; 
and the sentiment conveyed in the two 
first lines was regarded as so weighty that 
anbo, Selah, or pause, is added, to give 
time for its producing its proper effect be- 
fore supplementing the concluding line. 
10. The mountains being the most 
prominent objects on the surface of the 
globe, Habakkuk reiterates, in a somewhat 
different form, what he had expressed, 
ver. 6, in order to preserve the impression 
of the tremendous character of the trans- 
actions, to illustrate which they had been 
figuratively introduced.. In the former 
case mx is used of Jehovah; in this, of 
the mountains, which are, by a bold fig- 
ure, represented as inspired with life, and 
capable of taking sensible cognizance of 
the manifestations of Deity. To express 
the instantaneous character of the effect, 
adn, they quaked, is put in the future. 
The root ban or d°n properly signifies 
to twist, writhe, as with pain, and is fre- 
quently used of a woman in travail. It 
is also employed in the sense of guaking 
or trembling, which idea is conveyed by 
it in this place, 


314 


HABAKKUEK. 


Cuap. II. 


11 Sun and moon stood back in their habitation 


At the light of thine arrows W 


hich flew, 


‘At the glittering brightness of thy lance. 
12 Indignant thou didst march through the earth ; 


Wrathful thou didst tread down the nations. 


13 Thou wentest forth for the del 


« Silvarum juga coepta moveri 

Adventante Deo.” Virgil, 
rw Enz, @ torrent of water, i. @. an CX- 
tremely heavy rain, in contradistinction 
from t423 DAT, @ hast storm, Is, xxviii. 
2, pan, elevation, is used adverbially. 
By snot, the elongated pronominal 
form of 17>, #8 hands, is meant the 
waves of the ocean, thn, the ocean, 
its antecedent, is of both genders. The 
whole of nature is here exhibited as 
thrown into consternation at the ap- 
proach of God. The mountains tremble ; 
the heavens pour down sweeping torrents 
of rain; the sea roars, and causes its bil- 
lows to “run mountains high.” Comp. 
Ps. lxxvii. 17. 

11. mp v9 form an asyndeton, and 
are probably so put for the sake of effect. 
In many MSS., however, the ellipsis 
of the » is supplied. The paragogic m in 
mbar, isthat of direction or motion, and 
the ‘idea which it conveys, as here used 
with the verb ‘ay, is not that the sun 
and moon remained stationary in a part 
of the firmament, which is represented 
as their dwelling or habitation, but that 
they stood back or withdrew into that 
locality. It was usual with the Arabian 
astronomers to assign houses or chambers 
to the celestial orbs. Thus os man- 

e 


sio, domus, is the name of the signs of 
the Zodiac; and sy! hs, the 


circle of the palaces which the sun occu- 
pies. Job, likewise, speaks of yam “3710, 
the chambers of the south, antithetically 
with the northern constellations, ch. ix. 
9; as also of mnh-4%2, chap. xxxviii, 32, 
the same as nity, inns or lodgings, 
2 Kings xxiii. 5. That specific reference 


iverance of thy people, 


is made to what is recorded Josh. x. 12, 
is, after the Targ., very generally admit- 
ted; but, though it were granted that 
the event there described may have sug- 
gested the language of the prophet, yet 
the point of view in which he presents 
the heavenly luminaries is altogether dif- 
ferent. In the history, the construction 
to be put upon their standing still or 
being arrested in their course, is obvi- 
ously their continuing to shine, in order 
to afford light to Joshua, while following 
up his victory over the enemy ; whereas, 
in the present connection, they are sub- 
limely introduced as retiring into their 
abode before the brighter refulgence of 
the arrows and lances employed in the 
conflict. So completely were they eclipsed 
by this refulgence, that it seemed as if 
they had set. Schnurrer and J usti inter- 
pret the language of their remaining in 
their habitation, in the sense of not ris- 
ing, but the mn of motion is directly 
opposed to such construction. The > in 
mix> and "355 is the dative of cause, as 
in "2d TInt rid, “at, or owing to 
this, my heart trembled,” Job xxxvii. 1. 
Supply -zis before 42357, which is put 
in Piel for the purpose of marking the 
velocity of the motion of the arrows. 
The words -4s and "25, which are else- 
where used of the light of the sun and 
the moon respectively, are here trans- 
ferred to the glitter of the weapons spec- 
ified. 

12. 2% , to march, is used of the sol- 
emn and majestic proceeding of Jehovah 
before the Hebrews, Judges. v. 4; Ps. 
Ixviii. 8. vin, to thresh or tread down, 
is applied metaphorically to the destruc- 
tion of enemies, Micah iv. 13. 

13. Having described, in language of 


Eee 


wae 





Cuap. IIE. 


HABAKKUK. 


315 


For the deliverance of thine anointed ; 
Thou dashedst in pieces the head of the house of the wicked, 
Laying bare the foundation to the very neck: Pause. 


the most sublime and terrible import, the 
manifestations of Jehovah in reference to 
his enemies, Habakkuk now proceeds to 
specify in express terms the end which 
they were designed to answer, viz., the 
deliverance and safety of his chosen peo- 
ple; and then depicts their fatal effects 
in the destruction of every hostile power. 
The second y3*> is employed instead of 
the infinitive >> sind , and thus governs 
the accusative 7n* at als . These last 
words Aq. anit the author of the fifth 
Greek version render eis owrnploy oiv 
Xpisr@ gov, and the Vulg. in salutem 
cum Christo tuo, which has “led many in- 
terpreters, both ancient and modern, to 
refer m7 272, the anointed, to our Sa- 
viour. This construction of the passage is 
adopted even by Delitzsch, on the prin- 
ciple that as the term here designates the 
regal office of those who were of the 
Davidie dynasty, and Christ is repre- 
sented as the greatest king of that family, 
consequently Tur AnornTeD by way of 
eminence, he is to be regarded as included 
in the prophetic reference. By the law 
of parallelism, however, we are compel- 
led to identify Fr>t » thine anointed, 
with F122 , thy people, in the preceding 
hemistich. The noun is thus a collective, 
and is rendered in the plural by the 
LXX. ‘rods xpiorous gov, or, as in the 
Alex. MS., robs éxAexrods cov. The 
plural 5-772 is actually found in two 
of Kennicott’s MSS., and apparently in 
two more: in one of De Rossi’s and two 
more originally. It is denied, indeed, by 
Delitzsch, that 31, anointed, is ever 
used of the people of Israel; and cer- 
tainly none of the passages which have 
usually been adduced in support of this 
application of the term, can be fairly vin- 
dicated to it, except, perhaps, Ps. xxviii. 
8, where m+: corresponds to 47> or 
hyo, according to the reading of six 
MSS., originally three more, and the 


rendering of the LXX., Syr., Vulg., 
Arab. Still, as the Hebrews were 
br take! robn, a kingdom of priests, 
Exod. xix. 6, they may with as much 
propriety be said to have been anointed, 
as the patriarchs are, 1 Chron. xvi. 22; 
Ps. cv. 15. The term, as thus applied, 
expresses their destination. The Dagesh 
forte is found in the initial - of 3x5 in 
some editions, and is one of the few in- 
stances of its occurrence in this letter, 
contrary to rule. Comp. 1 Sam. i. 6, 
x, 24; 2 Kings vi. 32; Prov. iii. 8, xiv. 
10; Song v. 2; Jer. xxxix. 12; Ezek, 
xvi. 4. Delitzsch accounts for it on the 
principle of the word being short, and 
occurring after a Milel. ‘The prepositive 
2 in n=379 intimates, that the ruler here 
spoken of as the head, was not merely 
over the house, which the simple con- 
struct form would have expressed, but 
that he sprung from it. It is most prob- 
able that one or other of the Canaanitish 
kings is intended ; perhaps Jabin, whose 
city Hazor is said to have been £8- , the 
head of all the confederate kings, Josh. 
xi, 10; and was the most formidable of 
all the kings with whom the Hebrews 
had to contend, Judges iv. 3,13. The 
general sense of the concluding hemistich 
is apparent; but considerable difficulty 
attaches to the interpretation of -s1%, 
neck, as here connected with =4o> , foun- 
dation. This connection is so strongly 
marked by the force of the preposition 
“x , even to, that the former substantive 
cannot be separated from the latter, and 
referred to some supposable higher part 
of the figurative building. It must, from 
the structure of the language, describe 
the very lowest part of the foundation, 
or that on which the foundation itself 
rests ; but how either of these could be 
called the neck, it is impossible to con- 
ceive. There is, therefore, very great 
probability in the conjecture of Cappel- 


316 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. IIL. 


; 


14 Thou piercedst with his own spears the chief of his captains, 
That rushed on like a tempest to scatter me; 
Whose joy it was to devour the poor in secret. 

15 Thou wentest with thy horses through the sea, 
The boiling up of many waters. 

16 I heard, and my inward parts trembled, 


lus, which has been approved by Herder, 
Green, and some others, that instead of 
“ANIS» neck, the text originally read “1x, 
rock, which makes all plain. Both words 
are derived from the same root; and 
mysny occurs with the x, Neh. iii. 5. All 
the MSS. and versions support the pres- 
ent reading. rang is the infinitive abso- 
lute, which is often employed in the 
prosecution of a statement, instead of 
the finite form of the verb. The histor- 
ical facts which the prophet here poeti- 
cally describes, appear evidently to be 
those narrated Josh. xi. ; Judges iv., in- 
volving the complete destruction of the 
Canaanitish nations, and more especially 
the discomfiture of Sisera, celebrated by 
Deborah in her splendid triumphal song, 
Judges v. 

14, After a solemn pause, marked by 

45, Selah, Habakkuk prosecutes his 
fe oa which still embraces the discom- 
fiture of the enemies of Israel. i-ux, 
his own spears, the same as ns , ver. 
9. Interpreters are divided in regard to 
the signification of 1745 , or, as it is in the 
Keri, and in the text of a great number 
of MSS., and of four of the early edi- 
tions, :-34£. The traditionary interpre- 
tation is that of villagers, or the inhabi- 
tants of the country; hence hordes, 
which Delitzsch adopts, and explains it 
of armies or soldiers. Thus the Vulg., 
capiti bellatorum ejus. Perschke, Ge- 
senius, Ewald, and other moderns, how- 
ever, derive the word from the Arab. 


5 segregavit, discrevit, modum pre- 


scripsit, statuit, etc., and explain it of 
Judges, captains, etc., which appears to be 
the more appropriate meaning. Thus the 


LXX., duvdora; the Syr. Li Awa, 


just as the former in the Vatican codex 
render the cognate noun 44745 , Judges 
v. 7, 11, by dvvarol, and the Vulg. by 
JSortes. The pronominal suffix refers to 
yt, the wicked, in the preceding verse. 
Before sz" supply s3y. In using the 
first personal suffix singular in the fol- 
lowing verb, the prophet so identifies 
himself with his people as to represent 
what was aimed at them as designed for 
him. Comp. ch. i. 12, The nominative 
to Enso2 is 798, his captains. In 
the last ‘hemistich, ‘the object of compar- 
ison is the robber who lies in wait for the 
poor defenceless traveller, and exults 
when he sees him approach. Such was 
the exultation of the Canaanitish chiefs 
when the Israelites entered the country. 
Comp. Ps, x. 8—10. 

15. 57O50 must either be taken as an 
accusative absolute, as to thy horses ; or 
it must have a 3 supplied before it. The 
latter I have adopted as the easier mode 
of resolving the form. . “72m describes 
here the boiling up or foaming of the sea 
in astorm. The immediate connection, 
however, shows, that what the prophet 
has in view is not the Red Sea, but the 
hostile army of the Canaanites, which 
presented a furious and impenetrable as- 
pect to the Hebrews. Through this army 
Jehovah is represented as walking with 
his warriors, as if a general were coolly 
to march his cavalry through the thick- 
est of a proud and vaunting foe, which 
he knew would prove utterly powerless 
in the attack. Comp. Ps. ii. 4, where 
Jehovah is said to smile at the puny 
attempts of his enemies. 

16. Having finished the poetic rehear- 
sal of the mighty acts of Jehovah on 
behalf of his people in ancient times, 





Cuap. III. 


HABAKKUK. 


317 


At the sound my lips quivered ; 


Rottenness entered my bones, 


I trembled in my place; 


Yet I shall have rest in the day of distress, 
When the people that shall attack us come up. 
17 Though the fig-tree should not blossom, 


which he had composed in order to inspire 
the pious with unshaken confidence in 


him as their covenant God, Habakkuk 
reverts to the fear which had seized him 
on hearing of the judgments that were 
inflicted upon his country by the Chal- 
deans. "202 T37%1 7"220 is a varied 
repetition of “me 200 ab ark) oh Dae 
ver. 2. Instead of pe entering into a 
description of his feelings, he broke out 
in an earnest prayer that God would 
exercise pity toward Israel, from which 
there was an easy transition to the an- 
cient Divine interpositions. He now 
describes those feelings in very forcible 
and affecting language. 4>, the voice, 
is to be referred to the Divine threatening 
recorded chap. i. 6. The quivering of 
the prophet’s lips is merely expressive 
of the effect of the fear with which he 
was seized, and has no reference to his 
delivery of the threatening. ‘nnn, lit- 
erally under me, i. e. my under parts, 
limbs, or the like. Comp. the Arab. 


CAS, pars inferior, LXX. srox- 
dtrwxév mov érapdxsn h Ekis wove The 


Fi. 
Syr. wastes my knees. Jarchi and 


Kimchi aipia , in my place. 538 “ZS 
has been variously rendered, “ That I may 
rest ;”’ «That I must expect ;” * O that 
I might rest ;’’ “Yet I shall rest,” or 
“have rest.” The last construction is 
alone suitable. “ws, which the LXX. 
have entirely omitted, is here a conjunc- 
tion, connecting the following clauses 
with those which are antecedent to it, 
but obviously intended to qualify what 
had been there expressed. It thus forms 
a particle of transition from one class of 
circumstances to another of a different 
character. See Noldius, sub voce. Deep- 


ly as the prophet was affected, and over- 
powering as were the feelings of appre- 
hension with which he anticipated the 
awful calamity that was coming upon 
his people, he did not abandon himself to 
despair, but, on the contrary, consoled 
his mind with the assurance, that God, 
in whom he trusted, would keep him in 
perfect peace in the day of trial. Noth- 
ing can be more uncritical than the 
emendation of 428 into M*as , proposed 
by Houbigant, the verb nia or m23 hav- 
ing no such signification as that which 
he ascribes to it. The preposition > in 
mis pind and nébs$ is to be taken as 
signifying the time when the events were 
to happen; in ty> it is the sign of the 
genitive ; so that r>> nity is equivalent 
tory nity, the coming up of the people. 
The infinitive is the infinitive construct. 
By the people, the Chaldeans are meant. 
They are, as usual, said to come up, be- 
cause of the elevated position of Jerusa- 
lem, both in a local and a religio-political 
point of view. Comp. 2 Kings xxiv. 1. 
Before 9:75337 supply sz. The verb 
+3, like its cognate 73 , signifies to cut, 
or break im upon an enemy, attack. 
Hence the substantive 4575, a ¢roop or 
band of warriors, chiefly used of such as 
engage in plundering expeditions. It is 
the very term employed in the account 
given us of the fulfilment of the proph- 
ecy, 2 Kings xxiv. 2; “ And the Lord 
sent against him peny> "TATA 7Hs, 
the bands of the Chaldeans,” etc. 

17, 18. From a statement of the as- 
surance which he possessed of the mental 
tranquillity which he should enjoy dur- 
ing the anticipated calamity, Habakkuk 
rises to a triumphant assertion of the 
holy joy and exultation which would be 


318 


HABAKKUK. 


Cuap. III. 


’ 


And there should be no produce on the vines ; 
Though the fruit of the olive should fail, 

And the fields should yield no food ; 

Though the flocks should be cut off from the fold, 
And there should be no cattle in the stalls: 


18 Yet I will exult in Jehovah ; 


I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. 
19 Jehovah the Lord is my strength ; 
He will make my feet like those of gazelles, 


youchsafed to him amidst all the desola- 
tion to which his country might be sub- 
jected. The desolation here so graphi- 
cally and forcibly described, is that which 
was to be effected by the Chaldeans, 
whose army would consume or destroy 
the best and most necessary productions 
of the land; not only seizing upon the 
cattle, and devouring the fruits of the 
earth, but so injuring the trees as to ren- 
der them incapable of yielding any pro- 
duce. The passage contains the most 
beautiful exhibition of the power of true 
religion to be found in the Bible. The 
language is that of a mind weaned from 
earthly enjoyments, and habituated to 
find the highest fruition of its desires in 
God. When every earthly stream is 
dried up, it has an infinite supply in his 
all-sufficient and exhaustless fulness. No 
affliction, however severe or trying, can 
cut the believer off from this blessed re- 
source. On the contrary, its tendency is 
to bring him into closer contact with it. 
n'y 279 is not the labor bestowed upon the 
olive-tree, but the fruit which the tree 
produces. Comp. the phrase “5 nity, 
to make or produce fruit. The irregular 
construction of the singular masculine 
mz with the feminine plural nyo73 
is to be accounted for on the principle, 
that in the mind of the prophet both 
number and gender had merged in the 
totality and impressiveness of his subject. 
Comp. ddr rhond, Is. xvi. 8. It is 
what is commonly called, constructio ad 
sensum. Some would refer niv73 to 
an obsolete root 213, which they take 


to be cognate with 513, to burn; but it 
seems preferable to regard it as a deriva- 
tive like 7%, both signifying a smooth 
or level field, such as was prepared for 
grain or vines: from 31% , to break, and 
siw, to be level, as ground is which is 
broken up and levelled by the plough, the 
hoe, and the harrow. “75 is here used in- 
transitively, and is equivalent to the Ni- 
phal st22. mds: stands for xb , just 
as maha for sina, and mvp for x ara) 
Or HNYP 2. The root is sts, to shut Ups 
confine. niibys and nhnas are syno- 
nymes in the elongated future— the 7 
directive expressing the strong bent of the 
mind towards the exercise. ‘The words 
“yi. smts2 are rendered in the Vulg. 
in Deo Jesu meo! The LXX. have ém 
T@ OG TE TwTipl pov. 

19. The formula “37S min , instead 
of mnt chs, is of adiead occur- 
rence. Comp. Ps, Ixviii. 21, exl. 8. The 
language of this verse is found in Ps, 
xviii. 33, 34; and in part, Deut. xxxii. 
13; Is. lviii. 14. It expresses the con- 
fident hope that Jehovah would prove 
the support and defence of the prophet, 
and of all who made Him the object of 
their trust, and that he would grant them 
complete deliverance from their enemies, 
and restore them to the full and undis- 
turbed possession of their own land. 
mbox, the gazelle, is so swift-footed, that 
grey-hounds are liable to be killed by 
over-exertion in the chase. “nh, my 
high places, stands for *=-3 P43 , the 
heights of my country. Except for 
purposes of warfare, the elevated parts 





Cuap. III. 


HABAKKUK. 


319 


And cause me to walk on my heights. 
To the precentor, with my stringed instruments. 


of a land are the last that are occupied. 
The present is the only instance in which 
a musical direction is placed at the end 
of a psalm or ode. mx3%%, which oc- 
curs fifty-five times in the titles to the 
Psalms, is derived from the root m3 , ¢o 
overcome, excel, take the lead, direct,super- 
intend, preside, etc. It is used in refer- 
ence to the prefects or overseers, whom 
Solomon appointed over the workmen, 2 
Chron. ii. 2, 18; and specially of the 
masters or directors of the music em- 
ployed in the temple, 1 Chron. xv. 21; 
Neh, xii. 42. By the LXX. nxsxd is 
almost always rendered eis 7d réAos ; Aq. 
Te mKOTOLp } ; Symm. émwixiov; Theod. 
eis 7d vixos ; Targ. 8 23>. In 2 Chron. 
ii. 17, however, the LXX. render the 
noun by épyodwéxrns, and ver. 1, and 
xxxiv. 13, by émordryns. The form is 
that of the participle in Piel, the $ tak- 
ing the Patach of the article — a cireum- 
stance which shows that it cannot be, as 
some have supposed, an infinitive. 2732 
(from 433, 722, to strike the strings, 
play on a stringed instrument, and then, 
generally, to perform either vocal or in- 
strumental music, but chiefly the latter) 


signifies what is thus performed : music, 
melody, song, and also the stringed in- 
struments with which it was accompan- 
ied. The preposition 3 is that of accom- 
paniment. Delitzsch infers from the use 
of the affix in *nisa:, my music, that 
the prophet himself was to take an 
active part in the performance of it ; and 
further, from this circumstance, that he 
was of the tribe of Levi, and engaged in 
carrying on the temple music, But these 
inferences cannot be sustained, since, if 
the reasoning were valid, it would equally 
prove that Hezekiah must have belonged 
to that tribe, and been thus officially en- 
gaged: for he uses the very same form: 
"m5 2°32, “ my stringed instruments,” Is, 
xxxviii. 20. On what ground either the 
prophet or the king claimed these instru- 
ments, it is impossible to determine. The 
conjecture of Schnurrer, that “riqa"ae was 
originally *m3>35, and that the termina- 
tion "n— is merely paragogic asin *ms4, 
is overturned by the fact, that this para- 
gogic form is never found except when 
the word in which it appears is in the 
construct state, 


ZEPHANIAH. 





PREFACE. 


Aut that we know of Zephaniah is furnished by the title to his book, in 
which it is stated that he was the son of Cushi, grandson of Gedaliah, great 
grandson of Amariah, and great great grandson of Hezekiah. As in no other 
instance do we find the pedigree of a prophet carried so far back, it has not 
unfairly been inferred that he belonged to a family of considerable respecta- 
bility.* Whether, however, the Hezekiah there mentioned were the king of 


that name, or some other person of note so called, cannot be determined 


with certainty. The circumstance that the words, “ king of Judah,” are not 
added to the proper name, rather militates against the position that he was 
descended from that monarch, since this addition always occurs when pri- 
mary reference is made to any of the Jewish kings; and, what is specially to 
the present point, when such reference is made to Hezekiah. See Prov. xxv. 
1; Is. xxxvur. 9. The number of generations also forms an objection 
against the hypothesis, since it is scarcely possible to make room for them in 
the short space of time which elapsed between Hezekiah and Josiah. 

As our prophet is stated, chap. i. 1, to have received his prophecies in the 
days of Josiah, he must have flourished between the years B. C. 642, and B. C, 
611. This statement is corroborated by certain circumstances in the book 
itself. For instance, he predicts the fall of Nineveh, and the overthrow of 
the Assyrian empire ; consequently he must have prophesied prior to the year 
B. C. 625, when these events took place; i. e., in the former half of the reign 
of Josiah. The mention, too, of the destruction of “ the remnant of Baal,” 
chap. i. 4, evidently implies, that the abolition of idolatry had been carried 
on to a considerable extent, but had not yet been completed. Now this ex- 
actly tallies with the state of things in Judah from the twelfth to the eigh- 
teenth year of Josiah ; for though this monarch began, in the former of these 
years, to effect a reformation, it was not till the latter that it was prosecuted 
with more successful results. If, therefore, we suppose that Zephaniah de- 
livered his predictions between these two terms, we shall not be wide of the 
mark. ‘To the objection, that no mention is made of him or his labors in the 
historical books, which we might expect on the ground of the valuable ser- 
vice he must have rendered to the zealous monarch, it is sufficient to reply, 


* Ovd« &onuos dv Td Kata odpKa yévos. — Cyril, Pref. ad Zeph, 





Mite a 


PREFACE TO ZEPHANIAH. 321 


that the same objection would lie against the prophetical existence of Jere- 
miah at the same period, though we know that he then flourished at Jerusa- 
lem, under the very eye of his sovereign. The mention made of “ the king’s 
sons,” chap. i. 8, cannot be urged in favor of a later date; for it is altogether 
uncertain whether we are not to understand by the phrase the princes of the 
royal house generally, or such of the royal children as should be alive at the 
time of the fulfilment of the prophecy. The connection and manner in 
which they are introduced favor the latter construction. 

The predictions contained in the book are chiefly directed against the Jews, 
on account of their idolatry, and other sins of which they were guilty. The 
awful judgments to be executed upon them and the neighboring nations by the 
Chaldeans are denounced with great force and effect. Hitzig, indeed, has re- 
cently revived the opinion advocated by Cramer and Eichhorn, that the inva- 
sion of these countries by the Scythians, about the year B. c. 630, whose incur- 
sion into Western Asia is described by Herodotus, i. 102, is what the prophet 
has in his eye ; but the Jews appear to have been so little affected by their pro- 
gress, that it by no means corresponds to that of the enemy described by 
Zephaniah, in the course of which not only Judea, but the adjacent countries 
were to be entirely laid waste. His predictions received their accomplish- 
ment during the successes of Nebuchadnezzar. Towards the close of the 
book the restoration and prosperity of the Jewish people are introduced. 

In respect to style, Zephaniah is not distinguished either for sublimity or 
elegance. His rhythm frequently sinks down into a kind of prose ; but many 
of the censures that have been passed upon his language are either without. 
foundation, or much exaggerated. In point of purity it rivals that of any of 
the prophets. He has much in common with his contemporary Jeremiah, and 
some, after Isidore, have regarded him as his abbreviator. A careful com- 
parison of the two, however, proves the futility of this hypothesis. Occa- 
sionally he borrows the language of former prophets. Comp. chap. ii. 14, 
with Is, xiii. 21, xxxiv. 11; chap. ii. 15, with Is. xlii. 8. 


41 


CHAPTER I. 


Tux prophet begins by announcing the universality of the judgments which God was about 
to bring upon the land, 2, 3; specifies the different classes of transgressors whose conduct 
had merited the infliction of these judgments, 4—6; and calls attention to the speedy ap- 
proach, and the features of the period of punishment, which he intermingles with further 
descriptions of the character of the ungodly, 7—13. He then dwells upon the awfully 
calamitous nature of the visitation, and points out the impossibility of escape, 14—18. 





1. Tueword of Jehovah which was communicated to Zephaniah 
the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the 
son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of 


Judah : 


2 Iwill utterly take away everything from the face of the land, 


Saith Jehovah. 


3 I will take away man and beast ; 
I will take away the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea, 
And the cause of stumbling along with the wicked ; 
And I will cut off man from the face of the land, 


Saith Jehovah. 


4 I will also stretch forth my hand against Judah, 


1. See the Preface. 

2, 3. 908, which is variously em- 
ployed in Scripture in the sense of gath- 
ering, collecting, etc., is here used, as in 
Jud. xviii. 25; 1 Sam. xv. 6; Ps. xxvi. 
9; Ezek. xxxiv. 29, to denote the taking 
away by death, or other violent means ; 
to destroy. Thus Jarchi, yt> 4.72, 
its signification is destruction.” What 
clearly shows this, is the use of the cog- 
nate verb 530, ¢o scrape, or sweep off, in 
the form 5°>s= os, which the Rabbi 
just mentioned erroneously takes to be 
the Hiphil of 55x, by elision for pos33. 
The latter verb is never used in Hiphil ; 
but the same combination of the two 
verbs in the infinitive and finite forms 
occurs Jer. viii. 13, Ep"os Ges. Com- 
pare for similar usage syy7> dite, Is. 
xxviii. 28; wzn sso, Jer. xlix.9. The 
enumeration of particulars is designed to 
augment the fearful and universal char- 
acter of the punishment. =3%>72 does 


. not appear to differ in this connection 


from b4>% , @ stumbling block, cause of 
moral offence, what occasions, excites to, 


om 9 
or promotes sin. Syr. Jagats; Symm. 
Ta oxdvdarkae There can be no doubt 
that the different objects and rites of idol- 
atrous worship are what the prophet has 
in view. Thus Jarchi, niny niwiay Cn. 
The repetition of fx shows the proph- 
ecy had special reference to human be- 
ings, as the guilty party. The particle 
ns before n*yu- has the signification of 


with, together with, thus denoting accom- 


paniment. Comp. Jud. i, 16. The idols 
and their worshippers were to be involved 
in one common destruction. Newcome 
improperly renders mx as a sign of the 
genitive. : 

4. To stretch forth the hand against 
any one, means not merely to threaten, 
but to exert one’s power to his injury. 
nym Bip, this place, means Jerusa- 


—wee ee 


ie iain 


ee a ae 








Cuap. I. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


— 823 


And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; 

And will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, 

The name of the idolatrous with that of the other priests ; 
5 And those that worship the host of heaven on the roofs, 

And those that worship and swear to Jehovah, 


And swear by their king ; 


lem. By d92n “89, the remnant, or 
rest of Baal, we are to understand the 
statues, images, etc, dedicated to the chief 
domestic and tutelary god of the Phceni- 
cians, to whose worship the Hebrews were 
addicted as early as the time of the Judg- 
es (ii. 13), and among whom it afterwards 
spread more and more, especially in the 
ten tribes. Altars and high places were 
reared to this deity by Manasseh, even in 
the temple of Jehovah itself, 2 Kings 
xxi. 3, 5,7; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3,7. These 
Josiah destroyed in the reformation which 
he undertook in the twelfth year of his 
reign, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4; but it appears 
from this passage of our prophet, com- 
pared with 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8, that idols 
continued to be worshipped, most prob- 
ably in places which were more remote 
from public observation, or which had 
been formed after the destruction of the 
others, and the cessation of the reforma- 
tion referred to. Marckius and Gesen- 

ius interpret the phrase byan =x, of 
the people of Baal, but this seems less 
probable. The phrase corresponds to 
nbza>% in the preceding verse, and is 
in like manner immediately followed by 
the ms of accompaniment, pointing out 
the persons that encouraged idolatry. For 
nyu the LXX,, who have 7a évduara, 
must have read ninw , or they may have 
been misled by the px following. bw, 
however, is found in two of Kennicott’s 
MSS., and in the margin of another. 
Upwards of twenty MSS., four ancient 
editions, and all the versions read b' ms’ 
instead of pw ny. For D2» the 
idolatrous priests, see on Hos. x. 5. Both 
in the ancient and in the latter Hebrew, 

the term 475 is used of the priests of 
idols, as well as of those belonging to 


Jehovah. See Gen. xli. 45, 50; 1 Kings 
xiii. 2, 33; 2 Kings x. 19, xi. 18. It 
may to some appear doubtful whether the 
former be not here intended ; but as such 


are undeniably included in the ale 


it is more probable that in using the term 
721, the prophet had in his eye those 
who were professedly priests of the true 
God, but who, instead of checking, or 
endeavoring to eradicate idolatry, encour- 
aged it by their indifference, or the incon- 
sistency of their conduct in other respects. 
Comp. Jer. ii. 8, v.31. The Targ. ren- 
ders jim qanD DY nde, their wor- 
shippers with their priests, Neither were 
he left in the land by the Chaldeans, 
Their very names were to be forgotten. 
5. Having directed his prophecy against 
the priests, the prophet now denounces 
those of the people who indulged in idol- 
atrous practices. He first takes up those 
who were the votaries of Sabiism, or the 
worship of the heavenly bodies: a sys- 
tem which had, at an early period, be- 
come extensively prevalent, and contin- 
ued to exert its influence, not only over 
the nomades of Arabia, but over the 
philosophers and wise men of the East ; 
but which, in whatever form or degree it 
obtained, had the lamentable effect of 
deifying the creature, and obscuring the 
existence, claims, and glory of the Crea- 
tor. That it was adopted, and its rites 
practised to a great extent by the Jews, 
appears from 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6; Jer. 
vii. 17, 18, xliv. 17—19, 25. The n4aa, 
roofs or house-tops, in the East are flat, 
and are used for various purposes. The 
idolaters may have chosen them for se- 
crecy in the time of the prophet, or they 
may have selected them for the purpose 
of obtaining a fuller view of the plane- 


a 


324 


: ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. I. 


6 And those that have turned back from Jehovah, 
And that neither seek Jehovah nor apply to him. 
7 Keep silence before the Lord Jehovah, 
For the day of Jehovah is near ; 
For Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, 
He hath consecrated those whom he hath invited. 
g And it shall come to pass on the day of Jehovah’s sacrifice, 
That I will punish the princes and the king’s sons, 
And all that wear foreign apparel. 


tary objects of their worship. Jer. xix. 
13, xxxii. 29, The planet to which they 
specially burnt incense on the roofs of 
their houses is supposed to have been the 
Moon, or it was more probably Venus, 
called gvagn msba, “the Queen of 
heaven,” Jer. vii. 17, 18, 19, 25. The 
prophet next instances a mongrel class 
of worshippers, such as professed attach- 
ment to Jehovah, as the national God, 
but, at the same time, were devoted to the 
service of Moloch, whom in reality, they 
regarded and honored as their king. For 
the forms 5432, Pd, Dade, Eph, 
see on Amos vy. 26, and Gesenius under 
the word 5352. Instead of immediately 
connecting these opposite objects of wor- 
ship with the participle pyinncn, as 
he had done in the preceding clause, 
Zephaniah stops short, as if uncertain 
how to describe the persons whom he had 
in view, and then proceeds to characterize 
them as combining, by acts of solemn 
profession, the worship of the true God 
with that of Moloch. Comp. 1 Kings 
xviii. 21. 3 y2¥2, to swear by a deity, 
means to acknowledge him in a public, 
solemn, and binding manner ; openly to 
pledge one’s self to his service. 

6. This verse is More comprehensive 
in its import, being descriptive of all who 
were in any way guilty of defection from 
Jehovah, and lived in total neglect of 
him and his ways. 

7. For S938 ©, comp. Hab. ii. 20 ; 
Zech. ii, 13. In the symbolical lan- 
guage of prophecy, a sacrifice denotes 
the slaughter or destruction of an army 
or people. In the words »xap w-apn, 


he hath consecrated his called ones, how- 
ever, there is no allusion to guests invited 
to partake of a sacrificial feast, as there 
unquestionably is Ezek. xxxix. 17—20; 
Rev. xix. 17, 18. The DNTP » called 
ones, were the Chaldeans, who, as the 
Divine army, or the instruments of his 
retributive justice, were called into the 
field against the enemies of the Most 
High. In this sense Cyrus is said to 
have been called, Is. xli. 9, xlviii. 15. 
Comp. also Is. xiii. 3, and my note there, 
in which wap , to sanctify, consecrate, is 
explained of the selection of troops for 
war, and the religious rites engaged in 
when they set out upon the military ex- 
pedition. 

8. That by the phrase 45m 723, 
the sons of the king, we are to understand 
the immediate children of Josiah, does 
not appear. He could not have had sons 
of an age sufficiently mature at the time 
the prophet uttered his prediction, to 
allow of their contracting guilt to such a 
degree as that which the connection nec- 
essarily requires; for he could not him- 
self have been above seventeen years old. 
It may either mean the princes of the 
royal house generally, or the children of 
the king who should be on the throne at 
the time of the accomplishment of the 
prophecy. That the latter supposition is 
the more probable, appears from 2 Kings 
xxv. 7, where it is stated, that the king 
of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah 
before his eyes. By those that wore for- 
eign attire, the prophet means the rich 
and great generally, who, in violation of 
an express ordinance relative to national 


Cuap. J. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


325 


"9 I will also punish all who leap over the threshold in that day, 
Who fill the house of their. lord with violence and deceit. 


10 


And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, 


That there shall be the sound of crying from the fish-gate, 
And of wailing from the second, 
And of great destruction from the hills. 
11 Howl, ye inhabitants of the Mortar ! 
For all the people of Canaan are destroyed ; 
All who are laden with money are cut off. 


costume, which was designed to preserve 
them distinct from other people, Numb. 
xv. 37—40, arrayed themselves in the 
more costly and gorgeous garb of idola- 
ters, and thus more easily mixed with 
them in the performance of their idola- 
trous rites. 

9. Because the priests of Dagon ab- 
stained from treading on the threshold of 
his temple, 1 Sam. v. 5, it has been by 
some inferred that Zephaniah alludes 
here to some such superstitious custom 
as practised by the Jews. Thus the Targ. 
semste soa ysbman 2, all who 
walk in the laws of the Philistines. But 
this construction has little to support it 
beyond the simple occurrence of the word 
WANED > threshold, in both passages ; for 
in Samuel it is merely said, y>—7> x5 — 
Wist ynL , “ they tread or walk not over 
the threshold of Dagon ;” whereas the lan- 
guage of the prophet, ynf~n—by ad4an, 
‘s him that leapeth over the threshold,” is 
expressive of a more violent action ; and 
as the parallel hemistich shows, charac- 
- terizes the eagerness with which the ser- 
vants of the great rushed out of their 
palaces in order to seize upon the property 
of others, and thereby increase the wealth 
of their masters. If we may apply the 
signification of the cognate word in Arab. 


O, principio, or sub finem noctis iter 


fecit, we should interpret the term as 
denoting their setting out on their pred- 
atory expeditions under cloud of night. 
Thus, as to the general sense, the Syr. 
Meer O eR PH 20 > 


Vole leoduue es alt who tt 


mit violence and plunder. Kimchi ex- 
plains the word of their forcibly entering 
the houses of the poor, and robbing them 
of their goods. 

10, 11. These verses describe the state 
of Jerusalem when besieged by Nebu- 
chadnezzar. prann “2, the fish-gate, 
occurs 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14; Neh, iii. 3, 
xii. 39; but there is nothing in these 
passages by which we can determine its 
exact position. From the name it might 
be inferred, that it was situated either on 
the north or the north-east side of the 
city, that being the direction from which 
those would arrive who brought fish from 
Tiberias and the Jordan, and corresponded 
to what is now called the Damascus Gate, 
or to that of St. Stephen. It was from 
this side, being that which was most ac- 
cessible, that Jerusalem was attacked by 
the enemy. That m32% , the second, is 
not to be referred to -y33, gate, as its 
antecedent, but to >>» , city, understood, 
appears from Neh. xi. 9, where we have 
in full m2 “797 , the ‘aanad city, i. e 
the second liichion: of the city. Ewald 
renders the word by Neustadt, «« New- 
town.” In all probability it was what 
was afterwards called Akra, or the lower 
city, which lay to the north of the an- 
cient city on Mount Zion, and was sep- 
arated from it by the Tyropeeon, a valley 
which ran down between them to the 
present pool of Siloam, In our common 
version the word is improperly rendered 
college, 2 Kings xxii. 14, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 
22, after the interpretation of the Rab- 
bins. The mhyaa , hills, here mentioned, 
were not those around the city, such as 


326 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. I. 


12 And it shall come to pass at that time 
That I will search Jerusalem with lights, ' 
And punish the men who are hardened on their lees, _ 


Who say in their hearts, 


Jehovah will not’do good, neither will he do evil. 
13 And their wealth shall become a spoil, 


And their houses a desolation ; 


They may build houses, but they shall not inhabit them, 
And plant vineyards, but they shall not drink the wine of them. 
14 The great day of Jehovah is near ; 


the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Evil 
Counsel, etc., but Zion, Moriah, Ophel, 
and other elevated localities within the 
walls, occupied by the temple, the royal 
palace, and the houses of the richer por- 
tion of the inhabitants. The prophet 
graphically represents the progress of the 
Chaldeans, from the gate at which they 
entered, into the second division of the 
city, until they had ultimately taken 
possession of the whole, and destroyed 
the principal buildings. This destruction 
is very appropriately expressed by the 
noun “2%, from 20 , to break, break in 
pieces, 2 Kings xxv. 4, 8, 9. snp is 
not a proper name, as the article prefixed 
shows, but an appellative, signifying mor- 
tar, from wn>, to bray, pound. See 
Prov. xxvii. 22. It appears to have been 
applied, from its resemblance to that ves- 
sel, to one or other of the valleys in or 
about Jerusalem. Theod. év r@ Bade. 
Aq. eis tov SAuov. According to the 
Targum, yin7pt sbma, it was that 
through which the brook Kidron flows. 
Others think it was the Tyropceon, the 
locality of the bazaars, where the mer- 
chants carried on their business. From 
what follows in the verse, the latter is 
most probably the true interpretation. It 
is thought by some that the term was 
purposely chosen by the prophet, on ac- 
count of its resemblance in sound to 
tap, a holy place, and that Jerusalem 
itselfis meant ; but this word is exclusive- 
ly appropriated to the tabernacle, or tem- 
ple, and other sacred places, and never to 
the city, though it is called 3? “>, 


the Holy City, just. as it is still known 
in the East by the names ros, 


El-Kuds, and wots rns, Beit- 
el- Mukeddes, of similar signification. By 
4222 bx, the people of Canaan, the 
prophet does not mean the inhabitants 
of Canaan generally, nor Pheenician mer- 
chants in particular, who carried on trade 
with those of Jerusalem, but ironically 
the Jerusalem merchants themselves, who 
not only resembled the former in their 
modes of acquiring gain, but adopted 
their idolatrous manners and customs. 
See on Hos. xii. 8. 

12. The Divine judgments were to 
reach those who practised wickedness in 
the most hidden places, and in the most — 
covert manner. This is metaphorically © 
expressed by searching out with lights 
what is concealed in the dark. The 
metaphor following is taken from the 
firm crust which is formed on the surface 
of fermented liquors when they have 
been long left in an undisturbed state. 
REP > signifies, to contract, become con- 
crete, hard, etc., and strikingly expresses 
the hardened state of the rich who have 
settled down into infidelity and atheism. 
Comp. Jer. xlviii, 11. Their practical 
denial of a superintending and govern- 
ing providence is expressed in so many 
words at the end of the verse. 

It is here implied that those of whom 
the prophet speaks would go on building 
and planting till the judgment of God 
overtook them, and deprived them of all 
their property. Comp. Matt. xxiv. 38, 39. 

14. =n is not the participle in Piel, 


Cuap. I. 


15 


ZEPHANIAH. 327 
It is near and hasteth greatly ; 

The sound of the day of Jehovah: 

There the mighty man shrieketh bitterly. 

That day is a day of indignaticn, 

A day of trouble and distress, 

A day of desolation and ruin, 

A day of darkness and gloom, 


A day of clouds and obscurity ; 


16 
Against the fortified cities, 
And against the lofty towers. 

17 


A day of the trumpet and the war-shout, 


And I will bring trouble upon men, 


So that they shall walk as the blind; 
Because they have sinned against Jehovah, 
Their blood shall be poured out as dust, 
And their flesh shall be as dung. 


18 
Shall be able to rescue them 


Neither their silver nor their gold 


In the day of Jehovah’s indignation ; 
But the whole land shall be consumed 


By the fire of his jealousy: 


For a consummation altogether sudden will he make 


with the affirmative Mem rejected, but 
the infinitive of the same conjugation, 
used as an abbreviated form of -n 
“m2. 1%, bitter, is here used adver- 
bially. So irresistible should be the at- 
tack of the Chaldeans, that the Jewish 
warrior would be compelled to abandon 
himself to shrieks of hopeless grief. 

15, 16. A beautiful amplification, for 
the purpose of aggravating the character 
of the calamity. Passages somewhat 
similar occur in the prophets, but none 
equal to this. pax; 73, as well as 
myjdi mNw, are instances of parono- 
masia, Comp. Job xv. 24, xxx, 3, 
XXXvill. 27, misSani m4zbn form a 
Hendiadys, and describe the high towers 
or turrets, at the angles of fortified walls, 
Gesenius assumes an obsolete root 728 » 
to separate, divide into classes, as that 
from which mae, @ turret, is derived; but 


there is no occasion to depart from its 
usual derivation from the Piel of mas, 
to cause to turn. It thus signifies what 
is at the turning, corner, or angle of a 
building, and that whether at the top 
or the bottom. ‘Tacitus, describing the 
walls of Jerusalem, says: “Per artem 
obliquos et introrsum sinuatos, ut latera 
oppugnantium ad ictus, patescerent.” 
Hist. lib. v. cap. 11, § 5. 

17. pind, or, as in some MSS. and 


editions, pnd » flesh. Arab. es 9 CAPO. 


Root pn3, to eat. Sev may, by zeugma, 
be made to govern pain as well as ps7, 
but it is preferable to supply the substan- 
tive verb after pint. For the latter 
figure, comp. Job xx. 7. 

18. f3—t34, also —also, meaning 
both the one and the other. As here 
With a negative, neither —nor. ‘ Fire” 


328 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. II. 


Of all the inhabitants of the land. 


is often used figuratively to denote war, 16, xxvi. 11. 3 is to be taken in the 
because of its devastating effects. Is. x. sense of wholly, entirely, altogether. 





CHAPTER iI. 


A solemn admonition is now given to the Jewish people to repent during the short space 
of time that would be allotted to them before the Chaldean invasion, 1, 2; followed by 
an exhortation to the pious to persevere in their devotedness to God, and the interests 
of righteousness, 3. The prophet then proceeds to foretell the destruction of those nations 
which had always been hostile to the Jews, as the Philistines, 4—7; the Moabites and 
Ammonites, 8—10; parenthetically, the idols of the nations, 11; the Ethiopians, 12; and 


the Assyrians, 13—15. 





1 Benn yourselves, and be ye bent, 


O nation not desired! 


2 Before the birth of the decree ; 
The day passeth away as chaff; 


Before there come upon you the burning anger of Jehovah ; 
Before there come upon you the day of anger of Jehovah. 


“1. y34p. xid4pnn , the Hithpolel and 
Kal conjugations joined for the sake of 
intensity. Comp. Is. xxiv. 19, The 
words have been variously rendered. 
LXX. cuvdxante kal ovvdédnte. Vulg. 
convenite et congregamini. De Wette, 
priifet euch, ja priifet, Gesenius, collect 
yourselves and be ye collected; i. e. col- 
lect your thoughts, look into your own 
mind, prove yourselves; thus agreeing 
with De Wette, after the interpretation 
of Pagninus, Vatablus, Cocceius, and 
others. Ewald, erbleichet und bleichet. 
Most refer to gp as the root, which sig- 
nifies in Poel to collect stubble, wood, etc. ; 
but it is never used with respect to human 
beings. I prefer deriving it from sip, 
to bend, be bent. Arab. UY 3. IL. incur- 
vavit arcus more ; incurvatus fuit senez, 
Hence myp , a bow, from its being bent. 


Bend yourselves, and be ye bent, will then 
be the proper rendering. Comp. the use 
of hie, to bow down, Is. lx. 14, The 
prophet calls the Jews to deep humility 
before God on account of their manifold 
sins. Because 50> signifies to be pale, 
Gesenius renders the words 85> "an 
FO>2, O nation not ashamed! but 55> 
never denotes to be pale from a feeling 
of shame, but as the effect of desire, the 
verb everywhere else expressing the idea 
of pining, longing, being intensely desir- 
ous of any object. The phrase 55>3 Nb, 
not desired, is here used by litotes for 
abominated, hated. 

2. The Divine decree or purpose of 
punishment announced in the preceding 
chapter, is here tropically represented as 
a pregnant female near the time of her 
delivery. The words pi."a2 yisD » as 


Cuap. II. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


329 


3 Seek ye Jehovah, all ye humble of the land, 


Who perform his judgments 5 


Seek righteousness, seek humility, 


If perhaps ye may be hid 


In the day of the anger of Jehovah. 


4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, 


And Askelon a desolation ; 


As for Ashdod, they shall drive her out at noon-day, 
And Ekron shall be rooted up. 
5 Woe to the inhabitants of the line of the sea! 


The nation of Kerethites! 


The word of Jehovah is against you ; 
O Canaan! the land of the Philistines, 


I will destroy thee, that there 


chaff the day passeth, do not refer to the 
coming of the period of calamity, but 
the rapid lapse of the time of repentance. 
The image of chaff is always used of 
that which flies quickly away, never of 
what comes to any one. They are in- 
— sy oniaeancneemaeeie The sentence 
is a icictng in six of Kennicott’s MSS. 
probably in two more, and originally in 
eight of De Rossi’s. It is also omitted in 
the Arabic version. The declaration, with 
the trifling change of a single word, is 
properly repeated for the sake of emphasis. 

8. The prophet here addresses himself 
to the afflicted and humble among his 
people, from whom some hope of a better 
state of things might be expected. 
rendered perhaps, is not intended to ex- 
press a doubt respecting the safety of the 
pious, but the extreme difficulty of escap- 
ing the threatened judgment. The poor 
of the land were left by Nebuzar-adan 
to be vine-dressers and husbandmen. 2 
Kings xxv. 12. 

4, The connective force of the particle 
"> , for, with which this verse commen- 
ces, lies in the universality of the calam- 
ity which was about to come, not upon 
the Jews only, but upon all the nations 
with which they had been brought into 
contact. There would be no country to 


42 


“San, 


shall be no inhabitant. 


which they might flee for safety, for all 
were to be visited by the Chaldeans. For 
the cities of the Philistines here specified, 
see on the parallel prophecy, Amos i. 
6—8; andIs. xx. 1. trans, the me- 
ridian or noon, being the hottest part of 
the day, is generally spent by the Orien- 
tals in sleep, and is the less likely time 
for any military operations to be carried 
on. 2 Sam. iv. 5; Jer. vi. 4, xv. 8. 
The paronomasias, "ast? "42 and 44479 
“pzm , are not to be overlooked. 2 

5. This and the two following verses 
contain an amplification of the yc 
tion against the Philistines. tem tan, 
LXX. 7d oxolvoua THs Saadoons, the line 
of the sea, i. e. the region or coast along 
the ea eek, and so called from the 
custom of using a cord or line in meas- 
uring off or dividing a territory. Comp. 
with the same application, Dan 54m, the 
coast of the sea, Jer. xlvii. 7 ; Ezek. xxv. 
16. By orn > 453, nation of Cretians, 
we are not to understand the actual in- 
habitants of Crete, but the Philistines, a 
nation descended from those who origi- 
nally emigrated from that island, and 
took possession of the south-west coast 
of Palestine. ponvds, the name of 
the Philistines, properly signifies the 


emigrants, from 3>5. Eth, LAN, 


330 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. IL. 


6 And the line of the sea shall be pastures, 


With cisterns for shepherds, 
And folds for sheep. 


% Yea, the line shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah. 


Thereupon shall they feed ; 


In the houses of Askelon shall they lie down at even; 
For Jehovah their God shall visit them, 


And reverse their captivity. 


8 Ihave heard the reproach of Moab, 
And the revilings of the sons of Ammon, 


Who have reviled my-people, 


And carried themselves haughtily against their border. 
9 Wherefore, as I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, | 


The God of Israel: 


Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, 
And the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah ; 
A region of overrunning brambles and salt pits, 


And a perpetual desolation ; 


The remnant of my people shall plunder them, 
And the residue of my nation shall possess them. 
10 This shall happen to them for their pride, 
Because they reproached and carried themselves haughtily, 
Against the people of Jehovah of hosts. 


to rove, migrate. According to Stephen 
of Byzantium, Gaza was originally 
called Minoa, after Minos, king of 
Crete, who, with his two brothers, Ara- 
kus and Rhadamanthus, undertook an 
expedition to the coast, and gave the city 
his own name. Comp. Deut. ii. 23; 1 
Sam. xxx. 14; Jer. xlvii. 4; Ezek. xxv. 
16; Amos ix. 7. 4935, Canaan, which 
is not only employed to designate the 
whole country taken possession of by the 
Hebrews, but more specially Pheenicia, 
is here to be understood as restricted to 
the country of the Philistines. 

6. It is thought by some that there is 
an allusion to D°n > in the word n>, 
which properly signifies wells or cisterns, 
from 42, ¢o dig. Instead of continu- 
ing to be a thickly populated and. well 
cultivated country, the land of the Phil- 
istines should be converted into a region 
fit only to be occupied by nomades, 


7. Instead of being any longer annoyed 
by the Philistines, the Jews, restored to 
their land, would occupy the territory as 
described in the preceding verse. 

8—10. Comp. the parallel prophecies 
against Moab, Is. xv. xvi.; Jer. xlviii.; 
Amos ii. 1—3; and Ammon, Jer. xlix, 
1—6 ; Amos i. 183—15. $y S*"375 means 
to carry one’s self haughtily against any 
one. There is no occasion to supply 7s, 
orany other noun. The suffix in ebasa 
has "29 for its antecedent. The formu- 
las "ax on, I living, or as I live, ver. 9, 
and min: "nh, otnte nm, as Jehovah, 
as God liveth, are solemn modes of ex- 
pression, by which the Divine Existence 
is pledged for the certainty of the dec- 
larations which they introduce. -uxn, 
a drawing, or extending out, from Pi » 
cognate 5272, to draw out, extend. As 
connected with bramble, it denotes the 
overspreading or overrunning of that 











Cuap. II. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


33 


11 Jehovah is to be feared above all the gods of the earth, 
For he will cause them to waste away ; 
And all the inhabitants of the maritime regions 
Shall worship him — each from his place. 


12 Also ye, O ye Cushites! 


Shall be slain by my sword. 


13 And he will stretch forth his hand over the north, 


And destroy Assyria ; 


He will also make Nineveh waste, 


An arid region like the desert. 


14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her ; 
All the wild beasts of the nations ; 
Both the pelican and the porcupine 
Shall take up their abode in her capitals ; 
A voice shall sing in the windows, 


shrub. rb7 m2", @ pit or excavation, 
such as are found in the vicinity of the 
Dead Sea, in which, when it overflows 
in spring, its water is collected, and pure 
salt obtained by evaporation. 
conveyed by both metaphors is that of 
sterility and desolation. 

11. This verse connects so slightly 
with the preceding, and, as the former 
part is usually rendered, affords so little 
suitable a sense, that I cannot but regard 
the suffix in pa7by as possessing an an- 
ticipative pronominal reference to *rts 
vusn, the gods of the earth, with re- 
spect to whom Jehovah was to show him- 
self worthy of exclusive veneration by 
effecting their destruction. In Hebrew 
poetry the pronoun or pronominal affix 
frequently occurs before the noun. See 
on Is. xxviii. 26. While announcing 
the destruction of the surrounding idol- 
atrous: nations, the prophet was inspired 
to predict the gradual, but certain des- 
truction of idolatry universally through- 
out the earth. The period predicted 
should be one in which all peculiarity of 
local worship would cease, and Divine 
' worship be acceptable wherever presented 
in sincerity and truth. Comp. Mal. i. 
11; John iv. 21—24; 1 Cor. i. 2, For 
the phrase mz} 2 wha, comp. Ps. xevi. 


The idea © 


4, The va prefixed in 4ya4"12%, expresséS 
simply the locality in which the persons 
spoken of resided. Compare nmon%, 
bara, qr, HIN, etc. mr, Arab. 
I > to make thin, lean, diminish, cause 


to waste away, and to destroy. LXX. 
étoAoSpetoet. The knowledge and wor- 
ship of the true God were to be extended 
not only over the vast continental regions 
of the globe, but over those which border- 
ed on, or existed in the sea. In p> m8, 
the isles, or maritime regions, there is, as 
usual, a special reference to the West; 
though in connection with +5, ail, the 
universality of such regions is intended. 
The passage is strictly Messianic, since 
the accomplishment of the prediction has 
been, and is being effected by means of 
the gospel. 

12. For 35, Cush, see on Is. xi. 11, 
xviii. 1. The prophecy received its ful- 
filment when Nebuchadnezzar invaded 
and conquered Egypt, with whose mili- 
tary operations and fate the Ethiopians 
were more or less mixed up. Jer. xlvi. 
9; Ezek. xxx. 5, 9. There is, indeed, 
reason to think that Egypt herself is de- 
signed to be included in the term as here 
employed. 

13—15. From the remote South into 


332 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. ITI. 


Desolation shall be in the thresholds, 
For the cedar-work is laid bare. 
15 This is the exulting city which dwelt securely, 


Which said in her heart, 


I am, and besides me there is none. 


How she is become desolate ! 


A resting-place for wild beasts ! 
Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, 


He shall shake his hand. 


which the prophet had carried his hear- 
ers, he turns suddenly back to the North, 
where there still existed a mighty em- 
pire, which must of necessity be over- 
thrown, before the Divine sword, i. e. the 
arms of Babylon, could reach the coun- 
tries against which he had denounced the 
Sudgments of God. This empire was the 
Assyrian, which was drawing towards its 
end, and was actually subverted when 
Nineveh was taken and destroyed by 
Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, B. ©. 626. 
It is this catastrophe, with its disastrous 
consequences, which Zephaniah so graph- 
ically describes in these verses. So com- 
pletely was the celebrated metropolis of 
the ancient world to be desolated, that 
not even the Nomades would seek a tem- 
porary shelter among her ruins. They 
should only be inhabited by the wild 
beasts of the desert. That by pya7y we 
are to understand herds of savage ani- 
mals, and not flocks of sheep, goats, etc., 
is apparent from the mention made in the 
parallelism of “*:-}r-m—b> , every wild 
beast of the nation. +3, nation, has by 
some been thought to stand poetically for 


a collection of animals, just as py , peo- 
ple, does, Prov. xxx. 25, 26; but it is 
rather to be regarded as synonymous with 
VS» land, country ; only restricting it 
to the particular country in which Nin- 
eveh had been situated; so that the 
phrase will be equivalent to yay~*rmn, 
Gen. i. 24. The LXX. render mdyra r& 
Snpla ths yiis- Targ. 8593 704 bo , all 
the beasts of the field. ‘The + in ‘n> iy 
is merely paragogic. For nyp and=i7, 
see on Is. xxxiv. 11. Some siteeinel bee 


of the Arab Sgt =, the demon of the des- 


ert, and phat 27 fh desolation, into 29, 
raven, but without sufficient ground. See 
Maurer, who, in opposition to Hitzig, 
takes both words in their usual accepta- 
tion. 4x, the Piel of m4, is here 
used impersonally, and is best rendered 
in the passive. “mb, chapiter, see on 
Amos ix, 1. By minx is meant the 
wainscoting and fine ‘carved cedar work 
with which the walls, ceiling, etc., of the 
houses were ornamented. For the lan- 
guage of pride and carnal security ex- 
pressed in ver. 15, comp. Is, xlvii. 8 





CHAPTER HIII. 


HAVING digressed to predict the fate of the surrounding nations, Zephaniah returns to his 
own countrymen, and specially directs his prophecy against Jerusalem. the leading per- 
sons in which had persevered in wickedness in spite of all the warnings which they had 











Cuap. III. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


333 


received, 1—7. After addressing the pious members of the theocracy, and encouraging 

them to wait for the development of the Divine purposes, 8, he proceeds to predict the 
conversion of the Gentiles, 9, and of the Jews, 10; describes their character when con- 
verted, 11—13; congratulates them on their deliverance, and enjoyment of the presence 
of their heavenly King, 14—17; and concludes by adverting to the circumstances con- 
nected with their return to Palestine after their conversion, 18—20. 





1 Wo to the rebellious and polluted, 


The oppressing city ! 


2 She listened not to the voice, 
She received not instruction 3 


She trusted not in Jehovah, 


She drew not near to her God. 
3 Her princes in the midst of her 


Are roaring lions ; 


Her judges are evening wolves ; 
They gnaw no bones in the morning. 
4 Her prophets are vain-glorious, 


Hypocritical men ; 


Her priests profane what is sacred ; 


They do violence to the law. 


1, It has been thought by some that 
in meni, rebellious, as here applied to 
Jerusaiem, there is a play upon the name 
of 725%, Moriah, on which the temple 
was built. If so, it was calculated to 
suggest to the minds of the Jews the 
gross inconsistency of their laying claim 
to any connection with that sacred place, 
while they obstinately refused to obey the 
law of God. The root is x , cognate 
with m7, to prove refractory, rebel. 
The LXX. rendering the word by ém- 
gavhs, illustrious, have doubtless mis- 
taken it as coming from = mR, fo see; as 
the Syr. likewise has done, rendering 


JAS St noted, celebrated, 34%, the 


Benon. participle of 37, to rage, be 
cruel, oppressive, etc. What the prophet 
has in his eye is the rage and cruelty with 
which the idolatrous inhabitants perse- 
cuted such as adhered to the worship and 
service of Jehovah, as well as their op- 


pression of the widows, orphans, etc. 
See Jer. xxii. 3. 

2—4. Not only did the inhabitants 
generally refuse to receive instruction 
from the Lord, and alienate their affec- 
tions from him and his service, but the 
rulers, both civil and _ ecclesiastical, 
evinced the grossest dereliction of duty, 
and the most flagrant inconsistency of 
character. 359 "2Nt, evening wolves, 
i. e. wolves which come forth from the 
forests or other lurking places in the even- 
ing, and, greedy with hunger, seize or 
devour during the night, whatever ani- 
mals they fall in with. Comp. Hab. i. 
8, Avot vuxrepiwol, Oppian. Cynoget. 3, 
266. The voracious and insatiable cu- 
pidity of the judges is further expressed 
by =p5d nana ub, nothing ts craunched 
in the morning ; i, e. all is devoured in 
the night, and not so much as a bone 
left to be gnawed in the morning. t7. 
is here used impersonally. Thus, as to the 


304 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. III. 


5 Ichovah, the righteous One, is in the midst of her, 


He doeth no injustice ; 


Every morning he bringeth his judgment to light, 


It is not lacking ; 


But the unjust know no shame. 


6 I have cut off the nations ; 


Their corner-stones are laid waste ; 

I have made their streets desolate, 

Without any one passing through them. 

Their cities are destroyed ; they are without a man ; 


There is no inhabitant. 
I said: Only fear me ; 
Receive instruction ; 


~T 


That her habitation might not be cut t off 
According to all that I had appointed concerning her : 


But they rose up early ; 


They corrupted all their doings. 


sense, the LXX. and Vulg. oby déroAlmov- 
70; non relinqguebant. ‘The prophets, in- 
stead of evincing that gravity and humil- 
ity which became those who professed to 
deliver Divine messages, were p°rn42, 
light and vain-glorious persons, trifling 
with the most serious subjects, and car- 
rying themselves haughtily towards oth- 
ers. The verb +5 properly signifies to 
boil up like water. Comp. Gen. xlix. 4; 


Jud. ix. 4; Jer. xxiii. 32. Arab. « : 


superbivit. The priests were equally cor- 
rupt. They made no distinction between 
the holy and profane, and distorted the 
meaning of the law, when expounding 
it to the people. Comp. Ezek. xxii. 26, 
where similar language is used, and ex- 
plained. 

5. Jehovah had his residence in the 
temple, connected with the daily wor- 
ship, in which were those unfailing rev- 
elations of the rectitude of his character 
that brought to view a glorious pattern, 
which it was the duty of the Jews to 
imitate; but, hardened in wickedness, 
they were conscious of no feelings of 
shame. "p22 "R225 in the morn- 
ing in the morning, i. e. according to 


acommon Hebrew idiom, every morn- 
ing. 

6. Besides the plentiful instruction 
with which the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
had been furnished by the public institu- 
tions that existed among them, and from 
which they might conclude what pun- 
ishment they had te expect if they per- 
sisted in sin, they had examples from 
which to take warning in the desolate 
condition to which other nations had 
been reduced on account of their wicked- 
ness. Under the long and happy reign 
of Josiah, the Jews enjoyed rest and tran- 
quillity until the last year, while other. 
neighboring nations were laid waste; for 
it was during his reign that the great 
incursion of the Scythians into western 
Asia took place, while Judea was spared, 
Michaelis, 28 is here to be taken in 
its literal acceptation. of corner-stone, but 
the ruin or desolation of the building 
resting upon it is implied. 42 is the 
Niphal of 77 , to eut down, lay waste. 

7. »xaem and ‘mpm are both futures 
used as imperatives. Bi mois and n7by 
is a change, by no means uncommon, of 
the second person to the third. In $3 
there is an ellipsis of 5, according to, 











Cuap. III. 


8 Nevertheless, wait for me, 


In the day when I rise for the 


ZEPHANIAH. 


339 


saith Jehovah, 


prey 5 


For my determination is to assemble the nations, 


To gather the kingdoms ; 


To pour out upon them my fury, 


All the heat of my anger ; 
For by the fire of my jealousy 


The whole earth shall be consumed. 
9 For then I will turn to the nations a pure language, 
That they may all invoke the name of Jehovah ; 


That they may serve him with 


by aps is not to be here taken in the 
sense of punishing, but of appointing for 
punishment. Comp. Jer. xv. 3. The ap- 
pointed and threatened judgments should 
be averted from Jerusalem, if the inhab- 
itants would only turn from their evil 
ways, and walk in the fear of the Lord. 
Such was the announcement which he 
graciously made to them by his servants 
the prophets; but, instead of reforming, 
they addicted themselves more sedulously 
and entirely to the practice of iniquity. 

b*Don , to rise early, is frequently used 
in the Hebrew Scriptures in a tropical 
sense, to indicate that a person does any- 
thing with preparedness or full purpose of 
mind. The primary idea conveyed by 
the verb seems to be that of placing the 
burdens on the shoulders of camels, etc., 
before setting out on a journey, which, 
in the East, is done very early in the 
morning. Root p23¥, shoulder, Eth. 


MN} : bajulavit. NNAN@®: * onus 
imposuit humeris. 

8. Most expositors interpret the words 
> sDh, expect or wait for me, as if they 
were addressed to the profligate charac- 
ters described in the preceding verse, but 
this construction is admissible only on 
the principle of their being applied iron- 
ically, since the phrase is never used 
except in a good sense. Yet even this 
but ill suits the entire connection. I 
consider them to form an apostrophe to 
the pious among the Jews, calling upon 
them to look forward, amid all the calam- 


one accord. 


ities which were approaching, to the glo- 
rious period which these calamities were 
designed to usher in, and which the 
prophet specially describes in the follow- 
ing verses. The LXX., and all the other 
Greek versions, as also the Syr., render 
“y, by testimony or witness ; a significa- 
tion which only attaches to the letters 
when pointed sy. The signification of 
prey is more appropriate here. Compare 
for this signification Gen. xlix. 27; Is. 
Xxxiii. 23. What is meant by rising up 
to the prey is explained in the following 
clause of the verse. Indeed, the very 
derivation of the word from 7 ; to pass 
on in a hostile manner, to rush upon, at- 
tack; Arab. \c\e, irruét in aliquem; 

cvs, inimici, hostes; at once sug- 
gests the ideas of conflict and destruc- 
tion. 

9. From this verse to the end of the 
book the prophecy relates exclusively to 
Messianic times. The m4s73 mv, pu- 
rified lip or language, means ‘the "profes- 
sion of pure religion, a language freed 
from the polluted names of idols, and of 
every abomination connected with their 
worship. As this was to be realized by 
the nations, the psy, as distinguished 
from the Jews, it follows that the spread 
of Christianity, and the consequent sub- 
version of idolatry throughout the world, 
are here specifically predicted. This pre- 
diction, however, has hitherto been only 
partially fulfilled. By the gospel, indeed, 
idolatry has been dislodged from many 


336 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. IIL 


10 From beyond the rivers of Cush, 
My suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed, 


Shall bring my offering. 


parts of the globe, but its place has to a 
great extent been occupied by the pollu- 
tions of antichristian systems of worship, 
while vast regions are still the scenes of 
varied and most degrading idolatrous 
abominations. And, as to the unity so 
strikingly expressed by "Mx p=. one 
shoulder, whatever there may be of that 
real substantial unity which binds all 
true believers to Christ as their Head, 
and to one another as members of the 
same family, there is still a deplorable 
want of the visible manifestation of one- 
ness in obeying the laws of Christ, and 
obeying the ordinances of his house. 
These laws are spoken of as a burden, 
Matt. xi. 20; Acts xv. 28; Rev. ii. 24; 
and the metaphor here employed by the 
prophet is taken from two persons jointly 
carrying a burden between them, shoulder 
to shoulder. Compare the use of duoSv- 
paddy, Actsi. 14; ii. 1, 46; iv. 24; v.12; 
xv. 25; Rom. xv. 6. What has pre- 
vented the outward visibility of the unity 
of believers has been, that some of them 
have added burdens of their own to that 
of the Redeemer, while others have sub- 
mitted to those imposed by men profess- 
ing to be acting by his authority, but who 
have had no Scripture warranty for their 
pretensions. Until there is a return to 
an unanimous adherence to the simplicity 
which is in Christ, there can be no such 
unity as that taught in this verse. Yet 
for such the Bible teaches us to look; 
and it behooves every Christian to do 
whatever lies in his power, in order to 
bring about so blessed a consummation. 
Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 14, Mh yiveoSe ére- 
potvyotvres dmicrois; and 1 Cor. i. 10, 
re 3 xarnpricuévanr ev TH adt@ vot Kad 
év Ti adtn yveun. 

10. Having foretold the conversion of 
the Gentiles, the prophet in this verse 
predicts that of the Jews; quite in ac- 
cordance with other passages of Scrip- 


ture, in which they are placed in juxta- 
position with each other. “NP » my 
suppliants, from =n ¥, to burn incense 
to a divinity ; pray, supplicate. Arab. 


, bonos odores spiravit, Syr. . AS, 


Sumavit odore suavi. Comp. Rey. v. 8, 
where the prayers of saints are called 
Svuiduara, odors or incense, and Ps. exli. 
2, where David compares his prayer to 
n up, the Hebrew synonyme for incense. 
Who the worshippers are, the prophet ex- 
plains in the following words: *x;5—n2, 
the daughter of my dispersed, i. e. by a 
common Hebrew idiom, my dispersed 
people, the Jews; and the locality in 
which we are directed to look for them 
is B35—747:5 "2z,, beyond the rivers of 
Cush, i. e. Ethiopia or Abyssinia itself, 
the rivers of which enclose it on the 
north, See on Is, xviii. 1, where the - 
same phraseology occurs, but where the 
Ethiopians, and not the Jews, are the 
subjects of the prophecy. It is a well 
ascertained fact, though all the historical 
circumstances with which it is connected 
have not yet been brought to light, that 
there has long existed in the west of 
Abyssinia, a people called Fadashas, or 


emigrants (from the Eth. t. AL 
to migrate ; hence LAL, , @ sojourn- 


er, stranger, the root from which *nwbs, 
Philistine, is derived, and for the same 
reason), who maintain that they derived 
their origin from Palestine, and all of 
whom profess the Jewish religion. They 
are identified, as to physical traits, not 
with the African races living in Ethio- 
pia, but with the tribes of Arabia. They 
have their own government conceded to 
them by the Negus, or king of Ethiopia. 
When Bruce was there they had a Jew- 
ish king named Gideon, and his queen, 
Judith. Considering how greatly the 


Cuap. III. 


11 
On account of all thy doings, 


ZEPHANIAH. 


O37 


In that day thou shalt not be ashamed 


By which thou hast transgressed against me ; 
For then I will remove from the midst of thee 


Thy proud exulters ; 


And thou shalt no more be haughty in my holy mountain. 


12 
An humble and poor people. 


And I will leave in the midst of thee. 


And they shall trust in the name of Jehovah. 


13 
They shall not speak lies ; 


The residue of Israel shall not commit injustice ; 


Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth ; 
But they shall feed and lie down, 
And none shall make them afraid. 


14 
Shout, O Israel! 


Rejoice, O daughter of Zion! 


Be joyful and exult with all thy heart, 


O daughter of Jerusalem! 


15 Jehovah hath removed thy judgments ; 


Christianity of Abyssinia has been mixed 
up with Judaism, there is every reason 
to believe that most of the early converts 
in that country belonged to this very peo- 
ple. That the Falashas are part of the 
dispersed people whose conversion is here 
predicted, I can have no doubt. They 
are singled out as a separate portion of 
the scattered seed of Abraham, most 
probably on account of the peculiar cir- 
cumstances in which they have lived 
during the dispersion. Their bringing 
of Jehovah’s offering does not necessarily 
imply that they are, on their conversion, 
to come with gifts to Jerusalem ; all that 
is intended may only be p> 4hu mr, 
the pure offering, which, under the new 
dispensation, was to be presented in ev- 
ery place, See Mal. i. 11; and comp. 
ver. 9. 

11—13. These verses contain a des- 
cription of restored and regenerated Is- 
rael. The not being ashamed of their 
sinful practices does not mean their not 
feeling a compunctious sense of their 
intrinsic odiousness and demerits, but 
is expressive of the great change that 

43 


should take place in the outward con- 
dition of the Jews. That condition into 
which they have been brought by their 
obstinate rebellion against Jehovah and 
his Messiah, is one of disgrace. When 
recovered out of it, all the marks of 
shame and infamy shall be removed. 
The Pharisaic spirit of pride, and the 
vain confidence in the temple and the 
temple worship, which proved the ruin 
of the nation, shall be taken away. The 
converted residue shall be a people hum- 
ble and poor in spirit, Matt. v..3, xi. 6, 
and of a truly righteous and upright 
character; and having fled for refuge to 
the hope set before them in the gospel, 
shall be safe under the protecting care of 
their heavenly Father. 

14, A call to the converted Israelites, 
restored to their own land, and especially 
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to exult 
in their distinguished experience of the 
Divine loving-kindness. 

15. This and the following verses fur- 
nish the reasons why the Jews should 
indulge in exultation. 22, in Kal, to 
turn ; in Piel, to cause to turn out of the 


308 


ZEPHANIAH. 


Cuap. III. 


He hath cleared away thine enemies ; 
The King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of thee, 


Thou shalt see calamity no more. 


16 


In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not 


O Zion! let not thy hands be feeble ; 

17 Jehovah thy God is in the midst of thee, 
The Mighty One, that will save ; 
He will rejoice over thee with gladness, 


He will be silent in his love! 


He will exult over thee with a shout of joy. 
18 I will gather those that are grieved for the festivals, 


(They were of thee ;) 


Burdened with reproach for her sake. 
19 Behold! I will deal with all thine oppressors at that time, 


way, remove, destroy. Instead of 52°, 
thine enemy, thirty-two MSS., originally 
six more, and two by correction, read 
7k, thine enemies, which reading is 
also supported by two early editions, the 
Babyl. Talmud, and all the versions. For 
“eon, sixty-eight MSS., and among 
these some of the most accurate 
Spanish, read »sn°m. In the full en- 
joyment of the presence of their God, 
the converted Jews should have nothing 
to fear. 

17. A beautiful description of the de- 
light which Jehovah shall take in his 
recovered people, and of their consequent 
and continuous happiness. The phrase 
4nansa v7"? has occasioned some dif- 
ficulty to interpreters. Houbigant, after 
the LXX. and Syr., and following him 
Newcome, and recently Ewald, propose 
to read 31m , “he will renew his love ;’ 
but this verb nowhere occurs in Hiphil, 
and the conjectural emendation is wholly 
unnecessary. wm, to be dumb, keep 
silence, has the same signification in Hi- 
phil, to be silent, not to speak, and is here 
very appropriately employed to express 
the non-remembrance of iniquity. Justly 
as God might set the sins of his people 
before them, he, in the exercise of his 
love, makes no mention of them, having 
freely forgiven them for the sake of the 
atonement made by his only-begotten 


Son. Comp. Ps. xxxii. 2; Jer. xxxi,’ 
34; Ezek. xxxiii. 16. 

18. ma%,0f which p*353 is the Niphal 
participle, has two significations, that of 
being pained or grieved, and that of be- 
ing separated, removed, etc. Both deri- 
vations may be supported by the Arab, 


shy doluit, and Conj. iv. procul a se 


avovit. The former, which is here most 
approved, fully meets the exigency of the 
passage, and may be said.to imply the 
latter. The Jews, in a state which ren- 
dered it impossible for them to celebrate 
their sacred festivals at Jerusalem, are 
represented as filled with grief when they 
reflected on the privileges of their ances- 
tors. “94%, festival, is here a noun of 
multitude. mby, on her account, is intro- 
duced, for the sake of emphasis, between 
the words mE"M nsw, the lifting up, 
or utterance ‘of ‘reproach, which would 
otherwise have appeared in the construct 
state. By metonymy, the Jews, who are 
the objects of such reproach, are intended. 
Comp. Micah vi. 16. The feminine suf- 
fix in m°>9 refers to Jerusalem or Zion, 
understood: the change of person is, as 
frequently, for the sake of effect. The 
various reading 5~>» , though supported 
by more than twelve MSS., the Targ. and 
Syr., is most probably an emendation. 
19. my mys, means to deal with, in 


Cuap. III. 


ZEPHANIAH. 339 


And will save her that halteth, 


And collect the expelled, 


And make them a praise and a name, 

In every country where they have been put to shame 
20 At that time I will bring you in, 

Even at the time when I collect you ; 

Yea, I will make you a name and a praise 

Among all the nations of the earth, 

When I reverse your captivity in their sight, 


Saith Jehovah. 


the way of retribution or punishment. 
Vulg. interficiam. Targ. 83723, 7922 828 
ty, I will make an end of. ‘The restora- 
tion of the Jews is uniformly represented 
as taking place in connection with the 
destruction of those nations that are hos- 
tile to the cause of God, and that shall, 
in a special manner, oppose the accom- 
plishment of his purpose respecting the 
final deliverance of that long depressed 
and scattered, yet beloved people. Comp. 
Is. lix. 17—21, Ixvi. 15, 16. vd, 
halting, and mn32, driven away, cast 
out, express the deplorable circumstances 
of the Jews during the dispersion; and 
the verbal forms indicate that such shall 
be their condition till the time of resto- 
ration. The illustrious character of that 
restoration, however, shall redound to the 
celebrity of the covenant people in all 
the countries where they have been the 
objects of reproach and ignominy. yx, 

land, is used collectively for mix 43s, 
lands, and pAvS TUS» the land of their 
shame, means the countries in which they 
have been the objects of contumely and 
disgrace. Ezek, xxxiy. 29. The occur- 


rence of the article in 7S which is in 
construction with pmy2 , is contrary to 
rule, but is otherwise not without exam- 
ples. See Josh. iii. 17; 1 Sam. ii. 13; 
2 Kings vii. 13, In such cases, however, 
the article is generally repeated before 
the following noun. See Josh. viii. 11; 
Jer. xxv. 26. Some would account for 
the irregularity by an understood repeti- 
tion of the noun, thus, yxs yosn—>s 2 
Enva- 

20. After PSns 838 supply pSs4s3. 
The ;in nya is exegetical. The period 
of the reintroduction of the Jews into 
their own land is here rendered distin- 
guishingly prominent by repeated and 
pointed reference. So wonderful, how- 
ever, shall be the circumstances connected 
with the event, that they shall scarcely 
believe it when it happens, how greatly 
and how long soever they may have de- 
sired it. Jehovah, to remove all doubts, 
declares that he will bring it about before 
their eyes ; i. e. it shall certainly become 
the object of their delightful contempla- 
tion, 


HAGGAT. 





PREFACE. 


Tr is generally thought that the prophet Haggai was among the Hebrew 
exiles who returned with Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high priest, from Baby- 
lon in the year B. c. 536, when Cyrus granted them their liberty, and ordered 
them to be furnished with what was necessary for the restoration of the 
temple at Jerusalem. His book itself vouches for the fact that he proph- 
esied in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, who ascended the Persian throne 
B. Cc. 521. Having been interrupted in building the temple by an interdict, 
which the Samaritans obtained from Smerdis the usurper, the Jews became 
in some measure indifferent to the work; and when Darius came to the 
throne, an event which must have deprived the prohibition of all authority, 
instead of vigorously recommencing their labors, the more influential persons 
among them pretended that, as the prophecy of the seventy years applied 
to the temple as well as to the captivity in Babylon, and they were only yet 
in the sixty-eighth year, the proper time for rebuilding it had not arrived, 
and gave their whole attention to the erection of splendid mansions for 
themselves. 

To rouse them from their selfish indifference to the claims of religion, 
Haggai and Zechariah were commissioned, in the second year of Darius, 
i. e. B. C. 520, to deliver to them rousing appeals from Jehovah. These 
appeals had the desired effect, and the work proceeded with vigor. 

The book is made up of five messages, which were all delivered, at suc- 
cessive periods, within the short space of three months. They are so exceed- 
ingly brief, that they are, not without reason, SPE to be only a summary 
or epitome of the original discourses. 

The style of Haggai 3 is not distinguished by any peculiar excellence; yet 
he is not destitute of pathos and vehemence, when reproving his countrymen 
for their negligence, and exhorting them to the performance of duty. To 
these, the interrogatory form which he frequently adopts, in no small degree 
contributes. He is not without elevation when predicting the future. Cer- 
tain portions of the book are purely historical; and the rest, though exhibit- 
ing more or less of the parallelism of members which characterizes the 
usual prophetic style, are but faintly rhythmical. The phrases, -4n> ps2 
naxax ; C2235 "wy, are frequently repeated. mm? x2 occurs not less than 
thrice in a single verse, chap. ii. 4. 

UNS 1762, ii. 3; DM. nh, ii. 6; D=Sns Px, ii. 16, are peculiar, and 
indicate the Chaldee age. ; 


| 
: 
. 





4 


— a. = 


CHAPTER’ T; 


THE prophet calls the attention of the principal civil and ecclesiastical authorities to the 
negligence of the people in not building the temple, 1—4; directs that of the people to 
this as the cause of their want of outward prosperity, 5—11; and subjoins a notice respect- 
ing the success with which the delivery of his message was accompanied. 





1 In the second year of Darius the king, 


in the sixth month, 


on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord was com- 
municated through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son 
of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of 
Josedech, the high priest, saying : 


1. The Darius here mentioned is Da- 
rius the son of Hystaspis, of the family 
of the Achemenide, who, in consequence 
of an oracle, was raised to the throne of 
Persia, on the death of the usurper Smer- 
dis, B.c. 521, and reigned thirty-six years, 
That this must be the monarch intended 
is obvious from the facts, that Darius the 
Mede, mentioned Dan. v. 31, ix. 1, lived 
before the return of the Jews from Baby- 


“Jon; and that Darius Nothus and Darius 


Codomannus flourished, the former nine- 
ty-three years after the completion of the 
temple, and the latter at a much later 
period. Darius Hystaspis is represented by 
Herodotus as a mild and benevolent ruler. 
He protected the Jews from the opposition 
of their enemies, and carried into effect 
the edict of Cyrus, Ezra vi. The name 
wi241, Daryavesh, or, as it appears in 
the cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis, 
Daryawus, is derived by Lassen (iib. d. 
Keilform. Inschriften, p. 158), from the 
root darh, to preserve, with the affirma- 
tive aww, the s being the sign of the nom- 
inative; and thus signifies conservator. 
Comp. Herodotus, vi. 98, where the sig- 
nification éptefns, coercer, is given to the 
name. The date in the prophecy is taken 
from the reign of this monarch, because 
at the time he swayed his sceptre over 
all the countries with which the Jews 
were brought into contact, from Lybia 


i 


in Egypt, and the frontiers of Europe, to 
the Oxus and the Indus on the east. 
The months specified by Haggai and 
Zechariah are those not of the Persian, 
but of the Hebrew year. See Zech. i. 7, 
vii, 1, viii. 19. Zerubbabel, whose Chal- 
dee name was Sheshbazzar, Ezra i. 8, v. 
14; comp. v. 16, iii. 8, 10, was the grand- 
son (}32 is used by Haggai in its more 
extended signification) of Shealtiel, of 
the royal house of David, 1 Chron, iii. 
9—19. Cyrus committed to his care the 
sacred vessels of the temple, and ap- 
pointed him governor of the colony 
which returned to Judea. The title of 
ns, prefect or governor, by which he 
is designated, is applied. to persons bear- 
ing rule in provinces or divisions of 
the Persian empire of less extent and 
importance than‘satrapies. Comp. the 
Pracrit. Pakkha, and the present Turk- 


ish Pasha, though the latter word, LL L; : 
Basha, is rather to be referred to Urb, 


Bash, head, commander, ruler. Joshua 
the high priest is repeatedly mentioned 
in the book of Zechariah, as presiding 
over the Jewish affairs at the same time 
with Zerubbabel. That b4aan juin, 
the high priest, is to be connected, not 
with the more proximate, but with the 
more remote noun, 7. e. with von", 

Joshua, is clear, not on 


a 
ne 








6 gg C7 mm ap 


342 HAGGAI. 


2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Cuap. I. 


This people say, The time is not come, 
The time for the house of Jehovah to be built. 
3 Yea, the word of Jehovah was communicated through Hag- 


gai the prophet, saying: 
4 Is it time for you, O ye, 


To dwell in your wainscoted houses, 


And this house lie waste ? 


5 Now, therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Consider your ways. 


6 Ye have sown much, but brought in little; 
Ye have eaten, but not had enough ; 
Ye have drunk, but not to the full; 
Ye have put on clothing, but none is warm; 


ilar coherence of MME, but from all other 
instances in which offices and genealogi- 
cal statements are blended. 

2. Simple as are the words x3 ny Nd 
“as. my, the construction is somewhat 


difficult, owing to the position of the 


infinitive x3. Either we must, with 
Hitzig, give to the former my the points 
nZ=NnNy, now, as in Ps, lxxiv. 6 ; Ezek, 
xxiii. 43; or convert xz into x2 of the 
preterite, as one of De Rossi’s MSS. reads, 
and agreeably to the rendering of the 
LXX., Syr., Vulg., Targ., and Arab, ; 
or, what is preferable, regard s‘2 as put 
absolutely for the purpose of more em- 
phatically expressing the sentiment that 
the time was not yet really come in 
which to erect the temple. As two of 
the seventy years’ captivity had yet to 
elapse, the colony which had arrived at 
Jerusalem encouraged themselves in their 
neglect of present duty, by assuming that 
the building of the temple was included 
in the calculation, and that, till the full 
time had expired, they were under no 
obligation to recommence the work. 

4. Repeating the word ny, time, which 
he had employed twice, verse 2, the 
prophet makes an appeal full of point 
and cogency to those whom he addresses, 
The use of tmx before n>} adds to the 
force of the language. "ED signifies to 


cover, cover over, wainscot, or overlay 
with boards, so that what is predicated of 
the houses is not to be confined to the 
ceiling, but must be extended to the 
walls which were thus covered, at once 
for comfort and ornament. How beau- 
tifully the feelings of Dayid, 2 Sam. vii. 
2, contrast with those of the persons re- 
proved by Haggai. 

5. The 1 in mmx is inferential, while 
mny is employed, ‘not in its temporal 
acceptation, but argumentatively, as in 
Ps. ii, 10. po anz—be saad sw, 
lit. place your heart upon your ways, an 
idiomatic, but very expressive mode of 
speech, Comp. ver. 7, and ii. 18, twice, 
in the elliptical form p=325 s2"y. 

6. xan, déo8, ing ‘and eho, are 
historical infinitives, which carry forward 
the force of the finite form in pment at 
the commencement of the verse, and, at 
the same time, give a greater degree of 
prominence to the actions which they ex- 
press. Nothing prospered, and nothing 
could be expected to prosper, while the 
Jews were living in the flagrant neglect 
of their duty. They had brought prop- 
erty with them from Babylon, with 
which they had erected splendid houses 
for themselves, but God blasted their 
agricultural and other expectations ; and 
they had nothing in prospect but a sea- 











Fi A i ee 


Cuap. I. 


HAGGAI. 


343 


And he that earneth wages, earneth them 
To put them into a purse with holes. 
7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Consider your ways. 


8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, 
And build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, 
That I may be glorified, saith Jehovah. 

9 Ye looked for much, but, behold! little ; 
And ye brought it home, and I blew upon it. 
Wherefore ? saith Jehovah of hosts. 
Because of my house which lieth waste, 
And ye run each to his own house. 

10 Therefore, it is on your account the heavens withhold the dew, 

And the earth withholdeth her produce. 


11 And I have called for drought, 


son of scarcity and want. The necessa- 
ries of life were already become so dear, 
that those who wrought for day’s wages 
parted with all that they earned, as if 
they had put it into a bag or purse with 
holes. 2472 , d0red or perforated. 

7. A reiteration of the exhortation 
contained in ver. 5. 

8. The reason why the Jews are called 
to provide wood only is thought by Jer- 
ome to be, that the walls of the temple 
remained standing; but this hypothesis 
is contradicted by repeated statements in 
the books of Ezra and Zechariah, as well 
as in Haggai ii. 18, in which express 
mention is made of laying its founda- 
tions. It rather seems to have been on 
account of the time which would be nec- 
essary to procure the article in question 
from Lebanon, since it required first to 
be hewn down, and afterwards trans- 
ported by sea to Joppa. By -nn, the 
mountain, Rosenmiiller thinks Moriah i is 
meant; Hitzig, the mountainous country 
in the vicinity of Jerusalem; but it is 
more natural to interpret the term of 
Lebanon, whence the wood was actually 
fetched. It is true the Jews themselves 
did not go to that mountain for the tim- 
ber; it was conveyed by the Zidonians 
and Tyrians, Ezra iii. 7; but persons 


. waste, desolate, verses 4 and 9. 


are often said to do what they perform 
through the instrumentality of others. 
For 12281, the textual reading, which 
should be pointed 72231, the Keri has 
MI2SN1- The copula | ? ‘marks here the 
end to be obtained, or the result that 
would follow the performance of the 
enjoined duty. In such cases the future 
has the force of a potential mood. 

9. m8, the infinitive absolute, as in 
ver. 6. Even the small crop which was 
reaped had no sooner been brought into 
the barns or granaries, than it was dis- 
sipated. ‘Their running each to his own 
house is expressive of the eagerness with 
which the Jews pursued their own affairs, 
and sought for self-indulgence. %n°3 
and \m>3 stand here in striking contrast. 

10. tsb» is not to be referred to the 
heavens, and so rendered over you, but 
on aor account, for your sake. Comp. 
pst% a3 325, Micah iii. 12. The mean- 
ing is, on account of your neglecting to 
build the temple. The preposition in 
bun, following xba, signifies with re- 
spect to, but does not require to be trans- 
lated. 

11. In the use of a-4, drought, there 
is an obvious reference to sqm, dry, 
They 


form a paronomasia. The lengthened 


344 HAGGAL. 


12 


13 


14 


15 


Cuap. II, 


Upon the land, and upon the mountains, , 

Upon the grain, and upon the new wine, 

Upon the oil, and upon what the ground bringeth forth, 
Upon man and upon beast, 

And upon all the labor of the hands. 7 

Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son 
of Josedech the high priest, and all the residue of the people, 
hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words 
of Haggai the prophet, according as Jehovah their God had 
sent him; and the people feared Jehovah. . 

Then spake Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah, in the mes- 
sage of Jehovah to the people: 

I am with you, saith Jehovah. 

And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son 
of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the 
son of Josedech the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of 
the people, and they came and did the work in the house of 
Jehovah of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the 


sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. 


amplification is employed in order to add 
to the force of the threatening. The 
LXX., supposing it to be incongruous to 
speak of bringing a drought upon man 
and beast, read 3% instead of 4h, and 
rendered the word by pdxapay, a sword, 
not adverting to the circumstance that 
the latter term was still less applicable 
to the other subjects here enumerated. 
What the prophet threatens is a univer- 
sal drought, the effects of which would 
specially be experienced by living crea- 
tures. 


12. The prophet now describes the 
happy effect which was produced by the 
message which he had just delivered. 
All the people who had returned united 
with their rulers in rendering obedience 
to the Divine command. 


13. To encourage them to proceed in 
the path of obedience on which they had 
entered, Haggai delivers to them the 
brief, but most cheering promise, s23 
mint px: tomy, Tam with you, saith 
Jehovah. 

14. mam “°DM , fo excite, or stir up the 
spirit of any one (comp. Ezra i. 1, 5), 
means to render him inclined effectively 
to undertake the performance of any act, 
or to pursue a certain line of conduct. 

15. From the date here assigned it 
appears, that most of the month elapsed 
before the work was fairly undertaken. 
Several of the early editions of the He- 
brew Bible, as also the London Polyglot, 
improperly place this verse at the begin- 
ning of the next chapter. 





CHAPTER II. 


Tus chapter contains three different oracles of the prophet. The first, designed to encour- 
age the people and their leaders to proceed with the building of the temple, by considera- 
tions derived from the Divine presence, 1—4; from their national covenant continuing in 


ee 











Cuap. II. 


HAGGAT. 


345 


force, and that of the prophetic and gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, 5; from the 
advent of the person and kingdom of the Messiah, 6, 7; and from the universal proprie- 
torship of Jehovah, the glory of the Messiah, and the reconciliation which he should 
effect, 8, 9. The second oracle cautions them against intermission in their labors, by 
showing that if they did so, nothing they did could be acceptable to God, 11—14; and by 
referring them to the infelicitous state of their affairs before the late revival, 15—18; and 
promises them prosperity, 19. The third is addressed to Zerubbabel individually, to ani- 
mate and encourage him in conducting the work. 





1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, 
the word of Jehovah was communicated through Haggai the 

2 prophet, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, 
the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the 
high priest, and to the rest of the people, saying: 

3 Who is there among you that remaineth, 
That saw this house in its former glory ? 


And how do ye see it now ? 


Is it not, compared with it, as nothing in your eyes? 
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel! saith Jehovah; 
And be strong, O Joshua! son of Josedech, the high priest ; 
Be ye strong, also, all ye people of the land! 
Saith Jehovah of hosts, and work: 
For I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
5 The covenant which I made with you, 


1, 2. This oracle was delivered nearly 
a month after the rebuilding of the tem- 
ple had commenced, and was evidently 
designed to remove the despondency in 
which some of the people indulged, and 
to animate them to prosecute the work. 
3. It appears from Ezra iii. 13, that 
there were many present at the laying of 
the foundation of the second temple, who 
had seen the first. To such of them as 
were still alive, few as they must have 
been, Haggai appeals respecting the dis- 
parity between the two, in regard to the 
rough and unpromising appearance of the 
new structure, contrasted with the ele- 
gant and splendid aspect of that of Sol- 
omon, previous to its destruction by the 
Chaldeans, -s2327 is not in apposition 
44 


with o>2,, but connects with the inter- 
rogative 2. The phrase 4x5" s7%23 is 
peculiar, but not difficult of resolution, 
the word for temple being understood. 

4, The comparison instituted in the 
preceding verse, so far from being de- 
signed to discourage those to whom the 
appeal was made, was on the contrary 
intended to inspire them with confidence 
in their covenant God, whose prerogative 
it is to call things that are not as though 
they were. It is tacitly implied, that 
whatever might be the estimate they 
might make of the work, it was very 
different with respect to his. Comp. 
Zech. viii. 6. And what is here only 
implied is expressly declared ver. 9. 

5. The government of -azm—ns has 


346 HAGGAI. 


Cuap. II. 


When ye went forth out of Egypt, 
And my Spirit remain among you: 


Fear not. 


6 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Yet once, within a little, 


And I will shake the heavens, and the earth, 


And the sea, and the dry land, 


unnecessarily puzzled interpreters. Ewald 
thinks the sentence is incomplete, and 
would supply s->3, remember. Hengs- 
tenberg actually supplies the word in a 
parenthesis. Maurer endeavors to make 
it out to be an accusative modi s. norma, 
and explains, secundum illud verbum: 
and connects it with the preceding verse, 
thus: I am with you, according to that 
word, etc.; and so our own translators, 
after Calvin. Rosenmiiller would supply 
n'vy from the preceding verse. The par- 
ticle mx I consider to be prefixed to “257, 
in order to give it a greater degree of 
prominence, and to be equivalent to 
that or the same covenant, etc.; while 
“ain=ne, together with "hin, form 
the nominative to the participle n=; 
only, as separated from it by the inter- 
vening predicate “i31 "mq2 “gx, the 
participle is put in the feminine singular, 
to agree with min, the nearer antece- 
dent. For this use of mx before the 
nominative, though rare, see Neh. ix. 19. 
shay—nye no-Nd jan, the pillar of 
cloud did not depart, etc.; ver. 34, 
yoo Xd—aosdemmen , And our kings 
—have not kept, etc.: Dan. ix. 13, 
n7by mea rin neanbe ms, All this 
evil hath come upon us. =22, word or 
matter, is here employed to denote the 
Sinaic Covenant, as the accompanying 
verb my, to cut, or make a covenant 
obviously shows. Notwithstanding the 
flagrant violation of that covenant of 
which the Jews had been guilty, on ac- 
count of which they had been punished 
in Babylon, it still continued in all its 
force. They possessed it in its written 
form, and thus had the pledge which 
Jehovah had given them, that he was 


their covenant God, and would confer 
blessings upon the obedient. They also 
had his m1, the spirit of inspiration in 
the prophets who were raised up in the 
midst of them to declare his will, and 
call to the discharge of duty, Ezra, v. 1; 
and of efficient influence to induce them 
to listen to, and enable them to comply 
with such call, Zech. iv. 6; Hag. i. 14, 
6. In this and the following verse the 
Jews are encouraged to proceed with the 
work by the assurance that Jehovah 
would, as the Governor among the na- 
tions, in a brief space, exert his Almighty 
power in effecting a great revolution in 
the state of the kingdoms of this world, 
preparatory to the establishment of the 
kingdom of the Messiah, This mighty 
change is first described in the usual fig- 
urative language of prophecy, as a con- 
vulsion of the physical universe, and then 
literally as a convulsion of all nations. 
In the phrase bya mos 742, it is only 
the numeral my which occasions any 
difficulty. The combination ps 742, 
yet a little, i. e. time, occurs more than 
once. See Ps. xxxvii. 10; Is. xxix. 17; 
Jer. li. 33. But that here presented be- 
ing peculiar to this passage, naturally 
Suggests some peculiarity in the mean- 
ing. Most supply tye, ¢ime, after the 
LXX. % &rat, quoted and reasoned 
upon, Heb. xii. 26, 27, and the Syr, 


y y > 
<=) | pe 02 Comp. for nny 
yb , one time, once, Josh. vi. 3; 1 Sam. 
xxvi. 8; and for the ellipsis of eye, 
where mrs stands by itself, as here, 
Exod, xxx. 10; Job, x]. 5; Ps. Ixii. 12, 
Ixxxix. 36. And certainly, as uy, Uit- 
tle, is designed to express brevity of time, 


— 


wae wie eS arr 


Cuap. II. 


HAGGAT. 


O47 


7 Yea, I will shake all the nations, 
And the things desired by all the nations shall come; 


nothing can be more appropriate than 
such construction. Hengstenberg labors 
hard to bring the idea of brevity of 
time out of nnx, but fails to produce 
any examples to confirm his hypothesis, 
What the prophet has in view appears to 
be the convulsions which were yet to 
take place in the Persian and Greek 
empires, some of which were soon to 
commence, but all of which were more 
proximately, or more remotely connected 
with the complete establishment of the 
Jews in their own land, and the splendor 
of their temple as erected by Herod. The 
previous convulsion, implied in the phrase 
yet once, does not appear to be the shak- 
ing, ete., which took place at the giv- 
ing of the law on Sinai, but the violent 
change which had lately taken place in 
the condition of the Babylonian empire, 
just as that yet to come is not to be ex- 
tended to the downfall of the Roman 
empire, the destruction of Antichrist, 
etc., but must be confined to events 
which were to happen before the com- 
ing of Christ. We have only to call to 
mind the wars of the Persians in Asia 
Minor, Greece, Egypt, and other parts ; 
and those of Alexander and his succes- 
sors which followed, till the period when 
the establishment of the power of the 
Romans at length gave peace to the 
world, in order to read, in legible char- 
acters, the fulfilment of the present 
prophecy. Nor does the comment of 
the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
require any other application of it. His 
object is to show that the dispensation or 
kingdom of the Messiah is stable and 
immovable; and in order to illustrate 
his point, he introduces, by way of con- 
trast, the natural phenomena which took 
place on the promulgation of the Sinaic 
covenant, as described by Moses, and the 
political phenomena predicted by Haggai, 
all of which indicated the mutable char- 
acter of the elements upon which they 
were exerted. That the prophet intended 


to include the dissolution of the Jewish 
state in his prediction, does not appear ; 
indeed, the reference to such an event 
must have increased the despondency of 
his people, instead of inspiring them with 
hope and courage, which formed his only 
object in addressing them. 

7. Having figuratively set forth the 
great political changes which were still 
to take place among the nations before 
the introduction of the kingdom of the 
Messiah, Haggai here repeats his predic- 
tion in literal terms, and then at once 
announces the arrival of the eagerly ex- 
pected blessings of that kingdom. The 
passage has long been regarded as one of 
the principal prophecies relative to the 
time of the Redeemer’s advent. That 
it was so applied by some of the early 
Jewish Rabbins, is undeniable. Thus in 
the chapter of the Talmudic treatise 
Sanhedrin, entitled pn, the following 
interpretation is given as that of Rabbi 
Akiba, who flourished before the time of 
Jerome: dx-w7> tnd yos mind wos 
som mista ams onset: jann ond 
row N21 'VAS1 oMew wisn, For a 
hittle I will give the kingdom to Israel, 
after our desolation, and after the king- 
dom, behold I will shake heaven and 
earth, and MrssiAH SHALL comE. The 
rendering of the Vulg. supports the same 
view: ‘Et veniet Desideratus cunctis 
Gentibus.” Leo Juda: ** Et veniet 
qui desideratur ab omnibus gentibus.” 
Dathe: *“ Et deinde veniet gentibus om- 
nibus expetendus.” On the other hand, 
Kimchi, Vatablus, Calvin, Ribera, Dru- 
sius, Gataker, Vitringa, and others, ren- 
der: ** The Gentiles shall come with their 
delightful things,” 7. e. their silver, gold, 
precious stones, etc. Some, violently, 
‘Come ¢o the desire,” etc., meaning 
thereby Jerusalem. Most of the mod- 
erns, rejecting this construction as alto- 
gether unwarranted, translate after the 
LXX, iger ra exAenTa mdytwv TeV evar, 
“the choice things,” or “the pleas- 


348 HAGGAT, 


“Cuap. II. 


And I will fill this house with glory, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


ant things of all nations shall come.” 

Ewald: “dass die liebsten aller Volker 
kommen :”’ ¢. e. * That the most lovely 
of all people may come.” Hengsten- 
berg, who renders, “the beauty of all 
the heathen,” is at great pains in en- 
deavoring to make good his translation, 
which he interprets of what he says is 
always beautiful among them — all their 
costly good things. But he fails alike 
in his attempt to set aside the idea of 
desire as expressed by m7", and in 
that to prove that the prophet here fore- 
tells the rich contributions which the 
heathen would bring into the church. 
That the root 24, primarily and most 
commonly signifies to desire or covet, both 
in a good and a bad sense, must be evi- 
dent to every one who will take the 
trouble to consult the Hebrew concord- 
ance; and that m2%2m,, which is derived 
from it, signifies desire, an object of de- 
sire, see the Lexicons of Gesenius and 
Lee. This acceptation must be vindi- 
cated to 1 Sam. ix. 20. man b> "abs 
byniy; to 2 Chron. xxi. 20, m0" Nb3; 
and to Dan. xi. 37, bro mast : 
The want of concord in ran awa4 
prhanmta, the. verb expressing the 
predicate, being in the plural masculine, 
while 7727, the subject of the proposi- 
tion, is in the singular feminine, occa- 
sions no small difficulty, and presents an 
insuperable objection to the usual Mes- 
sianic interpretation. That yx2 should 
have been produced by zeugma with 
pc4am, is totally unsupported by anal- 
ogy, just as a plural of excellence in 
verbs is equally without example. The 
only practicable solution warranted by 
grammatical usage, consists in assuming 
mar to be a collective noun, convey- 
ing a plural idea, the gender of which 
not having yet presented itself to the 
mind of the prophet when he enunciated 
the verb, he naturally expressed it in the 
masculine as the more worthy gender, 
The construction in such cases is ad sen- 


sum; i, e. it is not formal, but logical. 
The proper translation, therefore, of 
pvsancba maar 324 will be, And, or, 
And then the things desired by all nations 
shall come. The Genitive being the Gen- 
itive of object, must be thus expressed. 
Now these objects of desire on the part 
of all nations, cannot mean their riches, 
for no such riches were brought to Jeru- 
salem by all the nations — the gifts 
bestowed by some few of the heathen 
princes after the time of Alexander not 
in any degree exhausting the force of the 
language here employed. Neither could 
the prospect of contributions in more re- 
mote future time have operated in the 
way of encouragement upon the minds 
of those whom the prophet addressed, so 
as to induce them to proceed with their 
work. The objects in question, there- 
fore, must have been of a higher order — 
Ta perddAdvta w&yaSd, the good things to 
come, i. e. the blessings of the New Cov- 
enant. There was found to pervade the 
minds of the heathen, a deep and dark 
feeling of the necessity of supernatural 
light and influence. Bewildered in the 
mazes of error and superstition, they 
could find nothing satisfactory respecting 
the Divine Being, pardon, emancipation 
from the power of moral evil, and a fu- 
ture state of existence; and more or less 
earnestly desired to obtain information in 
regard to these important and necessary 
points. To adduce only one testimony 
from among many to be found in ancient 
pagan writers. Socrates, endeavoring to 
satisfy the mind of Alcibiades on the 
subject of acceptable worship, says: avary- 
Kaioy obv éort mepyeéve ews dy Tis dd 
ds Set mpds Seods kal mpds avSpdrovs dia- 
keioSa, It is therefore necessary to watt 
till some one may teach us how it behooves 
us to conduct ourselves, both towards the 
gods and men. 'To which Alcibiades re- 
sponds: mére ody mapéora 5 xpdvos obTos 
& Sdnpares; nad rls 6 wmadevowr ; Hd. Ta 
"yap ky wot Son@ ideiv Todroy Toy KvSpwrov 








Cuap. IL. 


HAGGAITI. 


349 


8 Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the 


former, 
Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


rls éorw; When shall that time arrive, 
O Socrates? and who shall that Teacher 
be? for most eagerly do I wish to see such 
a man. — Plato, Alcibiades, ii. near the 
end. And, as the time of the Redeem- 
er’s advent drew near, there was a gen- 


eral expectation of a Teacher and Deliv- 


erer, not only in the Jewish nation, but 
throughout the world. To Christ, as the 
Light of the world, and to the spiritual 
blessings which flow through his media- 
tion, the prophecy strictly applies; and, 
with this reference, was admirably cal- 
culated to stimulate the Jews to persever- 
ance in building the temple, with which 
was inseparably connected the restoration 
of their ancient polity, during the exist- 
ence of which the Messiah was to appear. 
The * glory” with which the temple was 
to be filled, was not the rich and splen- 
did furniture, etc., but a respiendence, 
consisting in the manifestation of Jeho- 
vah himself. Comp. Zech. ii. 5, with 
Ezek. xliii. 4, 5; Exod. xl. 34, 35; 1 
Kings viii, 11. 

8. The Jews needed to be under no 
concern about the means requisite for the 
erection of the temple. The earth is the 
Lord’s and the fulness thereof, so that 
whatever amount of earthly riches was 
wanted, he would in his providence sup- 
ply. The declaration contained in this 
verse is introduced parenthetically, to re- 
lieve their minds from any momentary 
anxiety, arising out of the circumstances 
in which, as a poor and despised people, 
they were placed. 

9. The LXX. refer the terms y4-4s7, 
the latter, and 443x77 , the former, not 
tomin nan, this house, but to t42>, 
the glory. And thus Hitzig, Maurer, 
and Ewald; but Ezra iii. 12, determines 
to the contrary. The glory here pre- 
dicted was to be greater than that of the 


former temple, not merely in degree, but 
in kind. That the second temple, even 
as renewed and beautified by Herod, at 
all equalled in magnificence that of Sol- 
omon, there is no reason to believe. This 
must appear on comparing the descrip- 
tion given of the former by Josephus, 
Antiq. Jud. lib. xv. cap. xi., with that 
furnished of the latter, 1 Kings vi. vii. 
13—50. In point of size, indeed, the 
temple of Herod exceeded the structure 
erected by the celebrated Jewish mon- 
arch; but this was ali. The statement 


‘made by Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 


iv. 8, that it was the most admirable of 
all the works he had seen or heard of, 
does not include Solomon’s temple, but 
has respect to other erections in different 
parts of the world. But if the second 
house was inferior in point of sumptu- 
ousness to the former, and wanted, as the 
Jews admit, the Urim and Thummim, 
the ark, the pot of manna, Aaron’s rod, 
and the visible glory, which was the 
symbol of the Divine presence, it follows 
that the greater glory by which it was to 
be distinguished, must denote something 
altogether different in kind, and which 
could only be supplied by Him, in whose 
person the glory of God appeared, 2 Cor. 
iv. 6, who is the “ Brightness of the Di- 
vine glory,” Heb. i. 2; whose glory was 
beheld as that of the only-begotten of the 
Father, John i. 14; who could say of 
himself, ‘‘ that in this place is one greater 
than the temple,” Matt. xii. 6; and who 
sat in it daily teaching, Matt. xxvi. 55. 
In support of this interpretation, and in- 
deed of the Messianic character of the 
entire prophecy, ver. 7, 9, the declara- 
tion made in the concluding clause of the 
latter verse may with all propriety be 
adduced. When “peace” is- spoken of 
in an absolute sense, in the prophets, it 


HAGGAI. Cuap. II, 


390 
And in this place I will give peace, 
Saith Jehovah of hosts. 

On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year 
of Darius, the word of Jehovah was communicated through 
Haggai the prophet, saying: Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ask 
now the priests as to the law, saying: If any one should carry 
sacred flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touch with his skirt 
bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any eatable, shall it be 
holy ? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said 
Haggai: If any one who is unclean on account of a dead body, 
should touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests 
answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then Haggai continued, 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


and said: 


Thus hath this people, and thus hath this nation been, 


Before me, saith Jehovah ; 


denotes the reconciliation between God 
and sinful men, to be effected by the 
Messiah. Comp. Is. ix. 6, 7, liii. 5, lvii. 
19; Micah v. 5; Zech. vi. 13; with 
Luke ii. 14; Acts x. 36; Rom. v. 1; 
Eph. ii. 14, 17. This peace was to be 
granted mgm Dips, in this place, i. e. 
in Jerusalem. It was there the Messiah 
made peace through the blood of his 
cross, Col. i. 20. It has with some been 
matter of dispute, whether the temple 
erected by Zerubbabel, and that built by 
Herod, are to be regarded as identical, 
or whether the latter is not to be consid- 
ered as a third temple. Strictly and 
architecturally considered, that of Herod 
was entirely new, for he caused that of 
Zerubbabel to be taken down to the very 
foundations ; but in the popular and re- 
ligious language they were identical ; just 
as Josephus speaks of those built by Sol- 
omon and Zerubbabel as one, Bell. Jud. 
lib. vi. cap. iv. 8. Accordingly nothing 
is more customary than for Jewish writers 
to speak of only the first and the second 
temple. In the present verse, Haggai is 
to be understood as speaking in an archi- 
tectural sense, inasmuch as the second 
temple was then being actually built. 
10. This prophecy was delivered rather 
more than two months after that con- 


tained in the preceding verses of the 
chapter. 

11—13. To convince his countrymen 
of the impossibility of their conduct be- 
ing well-pleasing to God, and of their 
obtaining his blessing, while in any one 
point they neglected to comply with his 
will, the prophet directs them to consult 
the priests on two legal questions; the 
one, relative to the communication of 
ceremonial sanctity to any object, by its 
having been brought in contact with 
what had been sanctified; and the oth- 
er, respecting the communication of cer- 
emonial impurity by one who was him- 
self impure. The former was denied; 
the latter affirmed. Whatever the Jews 
might otherwise rightly perform, would 
not compensate for their neglect in build- 
ing the temple; on the contrary, their 
neglect in this matter would taint or viti- 
ate all their other actions. Comp. in 
illustration of these questions, Lev. vi. 
27; Numb. vi. 6, xix. 13; in which lat- 
ter passages the abbreviated form w53 , @ 
dead body, is expressed in full by TE 
m2, or by mamas cash bo. 

14. The application of the legal decis- 
ions of the priests to the case of the Jews, 
who had neglected the building of the 
temple, It describes them, not as they 





Cuap. II. 


HAGGAI. 


Sol 


And thus hath been every work of their hands, 
And what they have offered there hath been unclean. 


15 


And now consider, I beseech you, 


From this day and backward, 
Before one stone was laid upon another 


In the temple of Jehovah. 
16 Since these days were, 


One came to a heap of twenty sheaves, 


And there were but ten; 


One came to the vat to draw fifty purahs, 


And there were but twenty. 


17 I smote you with blight, and mildew, and hail, 
In all the labors of your hands ; 


Yet ye turned not to me, 
Saith Jehovah, 

18 Consider, I beseech you, 
From this day backward, 


From the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, 
From the day when the temple of Jehovah was founded, 


Consider ! 


19 Is the seed still in the granary ? 


now were, engaged in the work, but as 
they had been, and is designed to put 
them upon their guard against falling 
back into the same state. The adverb 
tw , there, points graphically to the altar, 
which had been erected at Jerusalem, and 
which was, in all probability, within view 
of the audience which the prophet ad- 
dressed. Ezra iii. 3. 

15—17. The Jews are earnestly ex- 
horted to reflect upon the state of their 
affairs during the period in which they 
had intermitted the work. God had 
frowned upon them, and rendered them 
infelicitous. 2%, a substantive, with 
the local = , used adverbially. Properly 
it signifies upward, being derived from 
nbs » to ascend; but used, as here, of 
time, it means back, backwards. In 
Bnien, the word 9", days, is under- 
stood. 82 is to be taken impersonally. 
At ote many, a heap of twenty, sup- 
ply nhvabe or py » sheaves. F455, 
which is used for the wine-press itself 


Is, lxiii. 3, is here employed to denote a 
liquid measure in which the wine was 
drawn out. LXX.erpnrfs. The quan- 
tity being unknown, I have retained the 
original word. For ver. 17, comp. 
Amos iv. 9, where we have the words 
"19 DRS B-N>, ye turned not unto me, 
instead of "bx Deny—p es , used by Hag- 
gai, in which there is an ellipsis of the 
participle n°2y. For this use of nx, 
as a nominative, or as indicating the sub- 
ject of discourse, see on ver. 5. In ver. 
18, the exhortation is once and again re- 
iterated for the sake of effect; and to 
render it still more definite, the exact date 
is added to the formula =37 pir, this 
day, which had been employed ver. 15. 
m2 is here to be taken, as in that verse, 
in "reference to past time, and not, as the 
Vulg., Hitzig, etc., in reference to the 
future. 

19. To the question put at the begin- 
ning of the verse, a negative is to be 
given. The seed was no longer in the 


352 HAGGAT. 


And as yet the vine, and the fig-tree, 
And the pomegranate, and the olive have borne nothing; 
From this day will I bestow the blessing. 
20 And the word of Jehovah was communicated a second time 
to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying: 
21 Speak to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, saying: 
I will shake the heavens and the earth, 
22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, 
I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, 
And overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them ; 
The horses, also, and their riders shall come down, 
Each by the sword of another. 
23 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
I will take thee, O Zerubbabel! the son of Shealtiel, . 


My servant, saith Jehovah, 


granary. It had been sown in the course 
of the month, and there were no signs 
of its springing up any more than there 
were of the produce of the fruit-trees. 
Jehovah had formerly blasted their har- 
vest; but now that the people were dili- 
gently engaged in building his temple, 
they might confidently calculate upon 
one of plenty. He gives them a positive 
promise to this effect. The repetition of 
myn Dien, from this day, which had 
been twice used in the preceding verses, 
gives emphasis to the declaration. sy, 
usually signifying wniti?, is here employed 
in the sense of while, or as yet, as in 
Judges iii, 26; 2 Kings ix. 22; Job. i. 
18, where it corresponds to 4y in verses 
16 and 17. 

20—23. These verses contain a special 
message to Zerubbabel, in which there 
is a repetition of the prediction, some- 
what amplified, respecting the revolutions 
that were about to take place, which had 
been delivered in verses 6 and 7. In 
ver. 22, the verb =", to go or come down, 
is equvialent. to bes, to fall. That the 
promise made, ver. 23, cannot be viewed 
as having respect to Zerubbabel in his in- 
dividual capacity, has been thought to be 
quite obvious from the fact, that he lived 
upwards of an hundred years before the 
time of Alexander, who overturned the 


Persian throne, and subdued the rest of 
Asia; but the predicted convulsions did 
not commence with the conquests of that 
monarch. Many of them took place dur- 
ing the reign of Darius, whose arms were 
carried not only into Scythia, Asia Mi- 
nor, and Greece, but, according to Her- 
odotus, into India, It is, therefore, not 
at all improbable that Zerubbabel sur- 
vived several of these wars, and thus 
lived in the beginning of sinn thn, 
that day, or the period in the course of 
which the prophecy was to be fulfilled ; 
and as the Persians occasionally experi- 
enced serious reverses, as, for instance, in 
the Scythian expedition, it was natural 
for the Jews who were under the protec- 
tion of Darius, to have their minds un- 
settled by apprehensions respecting the 
ultimate state of their affairs. To inspire 
them with confidence, Jehovah here as- 
sures their governor of his regard and 
protection amid all the commotions that 
might take place in the surrounding na- 
tions. p> , do take, is merely employed 
for the purpose of introducing the action 
expressed by the following verb. For 
phins Jr<cy, I will place thee as a sig- 
net, comp. Song viii. 6; Jer. xxii. 24. 
trin, from pnn, fo seal, or close by 
sealing, signifies a ring with the seal or 
signet in it, with which the impression 


“Cuap, II. 


~~ 








~ 


Cuap. II. 


HAGGAITI. 


303 


And will make thee as a signet ; 


For in thee I take pleasure, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


was made. Seals were commonly made 
of silver, but sometimes of the most pre- 
cious stones, and, consequently, held in 
high estimation by their owners. Being 
worn on one of the fingers of the right 
hand, they were likewise objects of con- 
stant inspection and care. In all these 
points of view Zerubbabel was to be re- 


garded by God. He was to be an object 
of his incessant care and delight. The 
latter idea is more definitely expressed 
by the addition "n41N2 72— hn, sig- 
nifying not only to ¢ry objects, and then 
to select what is valuable, but also to take 
pleasure in what is thus selected. 


45 


ZECHARIAH. 





PREFACE. 


ZECHARIAH was of a sacerdotal family. His father Berechiah was a son 
of Iddo, one of the priests who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua from 
Babylon. Neh. xii. 4. When he is said to have been the son of Iddo, Ezra 
v. 1, vi. 14, the word 43 is used, according to a common Hebrew idiom, in the 
sense of grandson. He must have been born in Babylonia, and been young, 
rather than otherwise, at the time of his arrival in Judea. He was contem- 
porary with Haggai, and, like him, received his prophetic commission in the 
second year of Darius Hystaspis, B. Cc. 520, only the latter began his ministry 
two months earlier. Both prophets were employed in encouraging Zerubba- 
bel and Joshua to carry forward the building of the temple, which had been 
intermitted through the selfish and worldly spirit of the returned exiles —a 
spirit which they boldly and variously reproved. 

The most remarkable portion of the book is that containing the first six 
chapters. It consists of a series of visions which were vouchsafed to the 
prophet in the course of a single night, in which, by means of symbolical 
representations, the dispensations of Divine Providence relative to the na- 
tions that had oppressed the Jews, the entire removal of idolatry from the 
latter, the re-establishment of the city and temple of Jerusalem, and the 
certainty of the Messiah’s advent, were strikingly and impressively revealed. 

The next portion contains the seventh and eighth chapters, and contains 
an answer to a question which the inhabitants of Bethel had proposed re- 
specting the observance of a certain fast, together with important ethical 
matter necessarily arising out of the subject. 

The remaining six chapters contain predictions respecting the expedition 
of Alexander the Great along the west coast of Palestine to Egypt; the 
Divine protection of the Jews both at that time, and in that of the Maccabees; 
the advent, sufferings, and reign of the Messiah; the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem by the Romans, and dissolution of the Jewish polity; the sufferings of 
the Jews during the dispersion; their conversion and restoration; and the 
sacred character of their worship, in which the Gentiles shall join, after the 
destruction of the wicked confederacy which will be opposed to their final 
establishment in Canaan. 

The authenticity of this last portion has been, and still is, strongly con- 
tested. Not only has it been denied to be the production of Zechariah, but 





4 





PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. | 350 


it has been broken up into fragments, the independent authorship of which 
has been vindicated to as many anonymous authors. ‘The first who ventured 
upon such a denial was Joseph Mede, whose opinion was adopted by Ham- 
mond, Kidder, Whiston, and Bridge, and more recently by Secker and New- 
come in this country, and on the continent by Fliigge, Doderlein, J. D. 
Michaelis, Seiler, Eichhorn, Bauer, Bertholdt, Forberg, Rosenmiiller, Gram- 
berg, Hitzig, Credner, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel. The authenticity, on 
the other hand, has been maintained by Carpzovius, Blaney, Jahn, Beckhaus, 
Koester, Hengstenberg, and Burger. 

The principal objection is taken to the language and character of the 
materials, as being very different from those which are found to distinguish 
what is universally allowed to have been written by Zechariah. To this, 
however, it has been replied, that granting such to be the case, there may 
have elapsed a long period of time between the composition of the former 
and latter portions of the book, during which any observable change in the 
style of the prophet might have taken place. It is evident, from there being 
no reference whatever in the chapters in question to the completion of the 
temple and the restoration of the Jewish affairs after the captivity, that, if 
they had not been written previously, they must have been composed long 
after these events had become matter of history, and in circumstances alto- 
gether different from those which occupied the attention of the prophet at the 
commencement of his ministry. 

That these chapters were written long before, and, indeed, during the ex- 
istence of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, is a position maintained by 
most of those who dispute their authenticity ; but it is based upon too feeble 
and precarious a foundation to recommend it to the adoption of any who will 
impartially examine into all the circumstances of the case. The mere men- 
tion of Judah and Ephraim, upon which so much stress is laid, can yield it no 
real support. Not the smallest hint is anywhere dropped which would lead 
us to infer the existence, at the time, of a separate political or religious estab- 
lishment in the northern part of Palestine; nor is there anything, but the 
contrary, to induce the conclusion that a king reigned in Judah in the days 
of the author. That Ephraim should be spoken of as existing after the cap- 
tivity, cannot be matter of surprise, when it is considered, that a very large, 
if not the larger, portion of the ten tribes availed themselves of the liberty 
granted by the Persians to the Jews in Babylon, and likewise returned to the 
land of their fathers. This view of the subject is confirmed by the applica- 
tion of the term “ Israel” to all the tribes, chap. xii. 1, just as it is used in the 
identical formula Mal. i. 1. Compare Mal. ii. 11, 12, iii.6. The few refer- 
ences to a return relate to those Jews which were in a state of banishment 
or slavery under the Greco-Syrian and Greco-Egyptian kings. The histor- 
ical circumstances connected with the Egyptian expedition of Alexander are 
so strongly marked in the prophetic announcements, that they cannot without 
violence be identified with any previous events. The absence, too, of the 
slightest allusion to the Babylonish captivity, either in the way of threatening 
or warning, while the prophet minutely describes the character of the Jewish 


356 PREFACE TO ZECIIARIALH. 


rulers, and the condition of the Jewish people, in immediate connection with 
the sufferings of the Messiah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the conse- 
quent fate of the people, goes convincingly to show that the captivity must 
have taken place, and that the whole of this portion of the book has respect 
to times future to those in which he flourished. So strongly, indeed, has this 
feature of the case presented itself to Eichhorn, and other sharp-sighted crit- 
ics, that, rejecting, as their neology compelled them to do, all ideas of actual 
prophecy, they scruple not to affirm that the disputed chapters must have 
been composed in the days of Alexander, Antiochus, Epiphanes, or Hyrcanus 
I. It also deserves notice that no reference whatever is made to the exist- 
ence of royal government among the Jews, at the time the author wrote, or 
to any circumstances in the history of that people previous to the captivity. 
When, therefore, the difference both in regard to time and subject-matter 
are taken into consideration, it must be regarded as sufficient.to account for 
any difference of style that may be detected. . It is, however, after all, a 
question whether there really does exist such a difference in this respect, as 
that to which it has become so fashionable to appeal. Be it that the intro- 
ductory formulas which occur in the first eight chapters do not occur in the 


last six, the objection, if fully carried out, would go in like manner: to dis- 


member the Book of Amos, and assign its composition at least to three differ- 
ent authors. The first two chapters. of that prophet, it-may be alleged, 
cannot have been written by the same person that wrote the three which fol- 
low, since in the former every prediction is ushered in-by the marked formula, 
“ Thus saith Jehovah,” whereas in the latter no such formula occurs, but 
another equally marked: ‘ Hear ye this word.” And upon the. same princi- 
ple, the seventh and eighth chapters must have come from the pen of a third 
writer, since the distinguishing formula there is, “‘ Thus hath Jehovah showed 
me.” 

The very peculiar character of the first six chapters of Zechariah, is such 
as to exclude all comparison of any other portion with it, while the more 
adorned and poetical style of the concluding chapters, which is so admirably 
adapted to the subjects treated of, ought equally to be regarded as exempting 
them from the category of comparison. In these no dates were requisite, 
though they were in the former, in which they occupy their appropriate place 
in necessary connection with the events which transpired at the time. With 
respect to the titles, chap. ix. 1, and xii. 1, they are precisely such as might 
be expected to mark the strictly prophetic matter to which they are prefixed. 
The exactly parallel title, Malachi, i. 1, naturally suggests the idea, that they 
belong to a common period, especially as nothing analogous is found in any 
of the earlier prophets. 

On the whole, I cannot but regard the objections to the authenticity of the 
disputed chapters as the offspring either of a holy jealousy for the honor of 
the Evangelist Matthew, who attributes chapter xi. 12, 13, to Jeremiah, and 
not to Zechariah,* or of a spirit of wanton, and. unbridled hypercriticism, 


* See Comment. on the passage. 


ee ae 








PREFACE TO ZECHARIAH. 3597 


which would unsettle everything, in order to satisfy the claims of certain 
favorite principles of interpretation that may happen to be in vogue. 

In point of style, our prophet varies, according to the nature of his subjects, 
and the manner in which they were presented to his mind. He now expresses 
himself in simple conversational prose, now in poetry. At one time he 
abounds in the language of symbols; at another in that of direct prophetical 
announcement. His symbols are, for the most part, enigmatical, and require 
the explanations which accompany them. His prose resembles most that of 
Ezekiel ; it is diffuse, uniform and repetitious. His prophetic poetry possesses 
much of the elevation and dignity to be found in the earlier prophets, with 
whose writings he appears to have been familiar; only his rhythmus is some- 
times harsh and unequal, while his parallelisms are destitute of that symmetry 
and finish, which form some of the principal beauties of Hebrew poetry. 


CHAPTER I. 


In the first six verses, which serve as a general introduction to the whole book, the prophet 
is charged to warn the Jews by the consequences which resulted from the impenitence 
of their forefathers, not to be backward in complying with the Divine will. We have 
then the first of the prophetic visions, with which Zechariah was favored, containing a 
symbolical representation of the tranquil condition of the world at the time, 7—11; fol- 
lowed by an expostulation respecting the desolate state of Judea, 12, 13, and gracious 
promises of its restoration, 14—17. The last four verses set forth, by appropriate symbols, 
in a second vision, for the encouragement of the Jews, the destruction of the hostile pow- 
ers by which they had been attacked, at different periods of their history. 





1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word 


of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah (the son of Bere- 
chiah, the son of Iddo,) the prophet, saying: 
2 Jehovah hath been greatly displeased with your fathers. 


3 Say therefore unto them, 
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
And I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts, 


1. See preface, and on Haggai i. 1. 

2 The special object which the prophet 
has in view in this and the following 
verses, is to call those Jews who had re- 
turned from Babylon to Jerusalem, to 
repent of the selfish negligence which 
they evinced in regard to the building 
of the temple. Comp. Hag.i. 4, 5, 7. 
This repentance is urged upon them by 
the consideration of the severe punish- 
ment which had overtaken their fathers, 
The argument is of the kind called en- 
thymeme, in which the antecedent only 
is expressed, and the consequent proposi- 
tion is left to be supplied by the reader, 
‘Jehovah hath been very angry with 
your fathers, and so he will be with you, 
except ye repent and reform your con- 
duct.” 437% 92p- The construction of 
“a verb with a noun derived from it, is 
found in other languages, as udxerSa 
waxhy, gaudere gaudium ; but its fre- 
quency in the Hebrew is such as to 
entitle it to be regarded as one of its 
idioms; and, generally, it expresses aug- 


mentation or intensity. Hence the LXX, 
render here, wpyladn— épyhw meydAnv; 
a iar) > 
and the Syr. Lo5 Toi Pay In 
ver. 15, the intensity is still more strongly 
marked by the addition of 4-1 , great: 
‘— xp -ax thaa ospi- The persons 
addressed in po"néas ; ‘your JSathers, are 
the Jews to whom the prophet had been 
sent. There is no occasion, with Blay- 
ney, to suppose that the text is defective. 

3. The + in m=%98} is not merely con- 
tinuative, but argumentative, and infer- 
ential. For the defective form nmbx, 
twenty-eight MSS., and three editions 
read prvts in full. The phrase 4m» 
rixgy , Jehovah of hosts, is of unusually 
frequent occurrence in the eight first 
chapters of this book, and in that of 
Haggai, written about the same time. 
In the last six chapters, however, it oc- 
curs not fewer than nine times. See on 
Is. i. 9. Its use appears to have been 
designed to inspire the mind with un- 
shaken confidence in the supreme and 








Cuap. I. 


4 Be not like your fathers, 


ZECHARIAH. 


309 


To whom the former prophets cried, saying, 


Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Turn now from your evil ways, 


And from your evil practices ; 
But they did not hearken, 


Neither did they give heed to me, saith Jehovah. 
-5 As for your fathers, where are they ? 
And as for the prophets, do they live forever ? 
6 But my words, and my decrees, 
Which I gave in charge to my servants the prophets, 


irresistible power of God. The 4 in 

s3x* marks the apodosis, and has the 
force of and then, or in that case. Comp. 
James iv. 8. 

4, The prophets here referred to are 
those who lived before the captivity, and 
the fathers are those who lived in their 
time, whose wicked practices had brought 
upon the nation that dire calamity, 
The appropriation of the phrase o-s"232 
pw24on7 , the former prophets, as a des- 
ignation of the books of Joshua, Judges, 
Samuel, and Kings, is of much later 
date. The returned Jews are here re- 
minded that the same announcement 
which was made to them had been made 
to their ancestors, and that they might 
have escaped all the evil by a timely 
repentance, to which Zechariah now ur- 
gently calls them. The former » in 
D-b-by is marked in the margin as 
redundant, and is omitted in the text of 
more than twenty MSS. and some print- 
ed editions. The plural of 4349, viz. 
n°>> 22, is the only form in which the 
word occurs. Comp. ver. 6. 

5. Jerome refers p’s"arn to the false 
prophets by whom the Jews who lived 
before the captivity had been deceived 
—an interpretation which appears to 
have been suggested by Jer. xxxvii. 19: 
“Where are now your prophets, which 
prophesied unto you, saying, The king 
of Babylon shall not come against you, 
nor against this land?” The most nat- 
ural construction of the verse, however, 


is that which connects it closely with 
what goes before, and identifies the 
prophets” here spoken of with ‘ the for- 
mer prophets” there mentioned, just as 
the “fathers” in both verses correspond 
to each other. The question, pr-rox, 
where are they? is equivalent to 423°x, 
they are not; i. e. in the land of the 
living. This the following question 
clearly shows. In Hebrew, simple inter- 
rogatives frequently imply the contrary: 
so that the language of the prophet is 
equivalent to “* your fathers are no more, 
neither do the prophets live forever.” 
The latter declaration seems to involve 
the idea, ‘‘ but my words never fail,” as 
it follows in ver. 6. This had been 
proved by the fulfilment of the Divine 
threatenings in the mournful experience 
of their fathers, and would again be 
proved in theirs, except they repented, 
which idea is amplified in the following 
verse. 

6. "EM, my decrees, i. e. my firm and 
determined purposes to punish your fath- 
ers, if they did not repent, which I com- 
municated to them by the prophets. The 
root is pen , to hack, cut, cut letters, etc., 
in stone or other hard substances. Thus 
laws were originally written on tablets, 
and hung up for public inspection. The 
confession made in this verse is that 
which the captives were compelled to 
make by the sufferings which they en- 
dured in Babylon. How far their n21 27, 
conversion, extended we are not informed. 


360 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. I. 


Did they not overtake your fathers ? 

So that they turned and said, | 

According as J ehovah of hosts proposed to do to us, 
According to our ways, and according to our practices, 


So hath he dealt with us. 


+ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is 
the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word 
of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah (the son of Bere- 
chiah, the son of Iddo), the prophet, saying : 

8 I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, 


It is, however, generally admitted that, 
as regards the great body of the nation, 
it involved the entire abandonment of 
idolatry. That 242 is here to be strictly 
taken as signifying to turn, return from 
evil to good, and not according to its 
idiomatic usage before another verb, as 
simply expressing the repetition of the 
action described by such verb, is required 
by the exigency of the passage. “wy 
and 5> are correlates ; the > repeated, 
qualifies a subordinate, but important 
part of the proposition. 

7. From this part of the book to chap. 
vi, 8, we have a series of eight symboli- 
cal visions, the language of which is 
exceedingly simple, but, in many cases, 
the interpretation is matter of no small 
difficulty. The general plan on which 
it is constructed, is, first to present to 
view the symbol or hieroglyphic, and 
then, on a question being put respecting 
its import, to furnish the interpretation. 
Though the visions are described as dis- 
tinct from each other, the one following 
the other in regular succession, yet they 
are so closely connected as to form one 
grand whole; and, as we learn from ver. 
8, were all presented to the mind of the 
prophet in the course of a single night, 
The period of these nocturnal revelations 
was between two and three months after 
the prophet first received his commission, 
Comp. ver. 1. was, Shebat, is the 
eleventh month of the Jewish year, ex- 
tending from the new moon in February 
to the new moon in March. Like other 


names of the months, the word is Chal- 
dee; Syr. Cow Arab. blo and 
blue. The etymology is not certain ; 
but the resemblance of the word to the 
Hebrew wat, a shoot, rod, staff, sug- 
gests the idea of the month being so 
called because it was that in which the 
trees began to put forth their shoots or 
sprouts. As the following statement 
does not contain the identical words 
merely of the communications made to 
the prophet, but an account of the scenes 
with all their accompanying circumstan- 
ces, the formula =;2x5 must be taken as 
signifying, “to the following effect,” 
** as follows,” or the like. 


VISION I. 


8. It has been doubted whether the 
article in mb*bn is to be regarded as 
definitely marking the particular night 
on which the visions were vouchsafed to 
the prophet, or whether it is not rather 
to be taken as expressing the adverbial 
determination of the noun— in the night, 
or, by night. The latter seems prefer- 
able, Comp. nb2b2, Job v. 14. The 
person here described as riding upon a 
red horse, is spoken of as "x, @ man, 
i. e. in the shape or appearance of a man; 
for that an angel, and not a human be- 
ing, is intended, is evident from verses 
11 and 12, in which he is expressly 
called “the angel of Jehovah.” And that 
he was no ordinary angel, but the Divine 
Mediator, the Angel of the Covenant, 











Cuap. I. 


ZECHARIAH. 


361 


and he stood among the myrtles in the shade, and behind him 


and of the presence of Jehovah, will not 
be denied by any who have rendered 
themselves familiar with the attributes 
and circumstances in connection with 
which the Person so designated is pre- 
sented to view, both in our prophet and 
in other parts of the Old Testament. 
One of the most remarkable of these 
circumstances, is his being identified 
with Jehovah himself. This Gesenius, 
so far from denying, or attempting to 
explain away, expressly asserts both in 
his Thesaurus, and in the last edition of 
his Hebrew Lexicon, under the word 
esha. ‘¢ Sometimes,” he writes, “the 
same divine appearance, which at one 
time is called min> yxd2, is afterwards 
called simply min>, as Gen. xvi. 7, e¢ 
seq. coll. v. 13; xxii. 11; coll. 12; xxi. 
11, coll. 16; Exod. iii, 2, coll. 5; Jud. 
i 14, coll. 22; xiii. 18, coll. 22. This 
is to be so understood, that the Angel of 
God is here nothing else than the invisi- 
ble Deity itself, which thus unveils itself 
to mortal eyes; see J, H. Michaelis de 
Angelo Dei, Hal. 1702. Tholuck, Com- 
ment. zum Ey. Johannis, p. 36. Hence 
Oriental translators, as Saadias, Abusai- 
des, and the Chaldee-Samaritan, where- 
ever Jehovah himself is said to appear 
upon earth, always put for the name of 
God, the Angel of God.’’ See the very 
satisfactory observations of Dr. M*Caul 
on this subject, in his translation of Kim- 
chi on Zechariah, pp. 9—27, in which 
he has shown that there is but one being 
who is called in Scripture ; min? qsba, 
the Angel of Jehovah ; that the proper 
name of this one Being is nin, Jeho- 
vah ; that this Being says of himself, dis- 
tinctly and unequivocally, that He is the 
God whom Jacob worshipped, the God 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and that 
some of the Rabbins themselves have 
been compelled to admit the facts. See 
also Dr. J. Pye Smith’s Scripture Testi- 
mony to the Messiah, vol. i. pp. 445— 
463; and Stonard on Zechariah, pp. 15 


—19. In the Babylonian Talmud, San- 
46 


hedrin, fol. 93, col, 1, the following brief 
exposition is given of the man here re- 
ferred to by the prophet: ‘This man is 
no other than the Holy One, blessed be 
He; for it is said, ‘The Lord is a man 
of war.’”” The position of this Captain 
of the Lord’s host, is stated to be ** among 
the myrtles which were in the shady val- 
ley.’’ Many conjectures have been ad- 
vanced respecting both the myrtles and 
the valley, but, in my opinion, they are 
all gratuitous, since it does not appear 
that these objects were designed to be 
symbolically understood, but are merely 
added as incidental circumstances, to 
give vivacity and force to the represen- 
tation. mbyx7 being always used, like 
mb4s% and max, of depth in reference 
to water or mire, it is clear from the con- 
nection that such cannot be the significa- 
tion of x1, which is a derivative, not 
from bax, to sink, be deep, but from box, 
to be shaded, darkened ; hence the shade 
or shady place, probably that of a moun- 
tain. Such derivation is indicated by 
the Dagesh compensative in the Lamed, 
and is supported by the renderings of the 
aan 
Hitzig and Ewald, comparing the Arab. 
Kia, wmbraculum, tentorium, inter- 
pret the word as meaning tent or taber- 
nacle, and suppose heaven, as the dwell- 
ing-place of Jehovah, to be intended; 
but the exegesis is far-fetched and inept. 
Equally unsatisfactory is the attempt of 
the latter of these writers to palm upon 
boin the signification of p°45,, moun- 
tains, by comparing the term with »377, 
height, Is. xlv. 2. Tav dpéwv of the 
LXX. must have originated in their hay- 
ing mistaken 0°09 for p-7n , or it may 
be an interpretation derived from chap. 
vi. 1. Behind the rider, who appears as 
their leader or captain, follow three com- 
panies of horsemen, distinguished from 
each other by the color of the horses. It 
is not to be inferred, that, because p-555, 
horses, only are mentioned, we are to 


LXX. and Syr. xarackiwy, 


362 


ZECHARIAH. 


- Cuap. I. 


9 were horses that were red, bay and white.- Then I said, What 
are these, my lord? And the angel who spake with me, said 


conceive of them as being presented to 
view without their riders. This is evi- 
dent from the reply given by the riders, 
ver. 11. 30, like our English horse, is 
sometimes used in a military sense, to 
denote cavalry. Still, as the color of the 
horses forms an important feature in the 
representation, they must have been spe- 
cially prominent to the mental vision of 
the prophet. On a comparison of the 
present verse with chap. vi. 1—8, and 
Rev. vi. 2—8, it will appear that horses 
with their riders are employed in the 
symbolical language of Scripture to de- 
note dispensations of divine providence. 
The peculiar nature of the dispensations 
is indicated by the color of the horses, 
and the armor and appearance of the 
riders. Red, the color first mentioned, 
being that of fire and blood, is the ap- 
propriate symbol of war and _ bloodshed. 
That of the second company of horses is 
expressed by n-P7'y, bay, or brown, per- 
haps not differing from what is com- 
monly called chestnut. See Bochart, 
Hieroz. tom. i. lib. ii. cap. 7. "What 
induces the belief that this color is meant 
is, that O*Panw signify vines which bear 
purple, or dark colored grapes. Comp. 


the Arab. ¥ at, rufus color ; peal, 


valde rubens seu rufus camelus, The 
LXX. yWapol; Vulg. varii, The addi- 
tion, xa mowxlAo., in the text of the 
LXX. is doubtless a gloss. This color 
is symbolical of a middle state of things 
—a dispensation neither characterized 
by bloodshed, nor by victory and joyous 
prosperity, which the white color is uni- 
versally allowed to represent. From 
what is stated, ver. 11, it is obvious we 
cannot interpret the dispensations, thus 
emblematically set forth, of events still 
future at the time of the vision. The 
different cohorts speak of their commis- 
sion as already fulfilled. The colors 
must, therefore, denote the Medo-Per- 
sian war, in which the Babylonian em- 


pire was subverted; the mixed or tran- 
sition state of affairs which followed ; and 
the complete establishment of the new 
dynasty in the room of the tyrannical 
power by which the Jews had been en- 
slaved. In consideration of the awful 
vengeance which had been inflicted upon 
that power, the color of the horse on 
which the commander rode is represented 
as being red, rather than bay or white — 
evidently with the design of affecting 
the minds of the Jews with a sense of 
the great deliverance which had been 
wrought for them by their Divine Pro- 
tector. 

9. Marckius, Ch. B. Michaelis, Rosen- 
miiller, Maurer, and Ewald, are of opin- 
ion, that the angel here spoken of is 
identical with the man riding on the 
horse mentioned in the preceding verse, 
but the contrary is properly maintained 
by Vitringa and Hengstenberg, as a com- 
parison with ver. 10 is sufficient to show. 
Though the angel who made the com- 
munications to the prophet had not been 
formerly mentioned, he had presented 
himself to him, or stood beside him, 
ready to discharge the duties of his 
office. This angel is uniformly spoken 
of as "2 “ahn ysden, the angel that 
spake with me. See verses 13, 14, chap. 
ii, 2, 7, iv. 1, 4, 8, v. 5, 10, vi. 4. The 
language is peculiar to our prophet ; and 
from the office specially assigned to the 
angel, he is usually called the angelus 
interpres, or the angelus collocutor. That 
stress is to be laid upon the use of the 
preposition 2 following the verb -211, fo 
speak, as if it were designed to mark the 
internal character of communications 
made by the angel to the prophet—a 
position maintained by Jerome, Ewald, 
Delitzsch, and some others — cannot be 
satisfactorily made out. The utmost that 
can be conceded respecting the force of 
the preposition, in such connection, is its 
expressing the familiarity or intimacy of 
the intercourse between the Divine mes- 








Cuap, I. 


10 to me, I will show thee what these are. 


ZECHARIAH. 


& 


363 


And the man that 


stood among the myrtles answered and said, These are they 


11 


whom Jehovah hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. 


And they answered the Angel of Jehovah that stood among the 
myrtles, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, 
and, behold! the whole earth sitteth still and is tranquil. 


12 


Then the Angel of Jehovah answered and said: O Jehovah 


of hosts! how long wilt thou not compassionate Jerusalem, and 
the cities of Judah, with which thou hast been angry these 
13 seventy years? And Jehovah answered the angel who spake 


senger and the prophet. When the angel 
says Wxns, I will show, or cause thee to 
see these things, the reference is to a men- 
tal perception or understanding of their 
meaning. 

10, 11. may, signifies to commence or 
proceed to speak, as well as to answer. 
Comp. the use of &roxpivoua in the New 
Testament. Instead of the requisite in- 
formation being communicated by the 
interpreting angel, it is imparted by the 
Angel of Jehovah himself, and by those 
who acted under his command. Because 
the phraseology y4s2 35nn7 is almost 
identical with that employed to describe 
the roaming of Satan through the earth, 
Job. i. 7, ii. 2, if has been inferred that 
the horsemen represent celestial spirits 
sent forth for the execution of the di- 
vine purposes; but the ground is too 
precarious to admit of any such theory 
being built upon it, as a comparison with 
Rev. vi. 2—8, is sufficient to show. The 
simple occurrence of the same terms can- 
not of itself justify this interpretation. 
From the reply being given to the Angel 
of Jehovah, we may conclude, that he 
had signified to them that they should 
make their report for the information of 
the prophet. In consequence of their 
several operations, the obstacles had been 
removed out of the way which prevented 
the restoration of the Jews; the wars in 
which the Persians had been engaged 
had ceased ; and, at the time the prophet 
had the vision, in the second year of Da- 
rius, universal peace obtained in all the 
regions with which the people of God 


had any connection. For the use of 
upd to denote a state of tranquillity after 
war, comp. Jud. v. 26. A similar com- 
bination of ny» with 15% occurs ch. 
vii. 7, and is intended to express the 
profound character of the peace which 
was then enjoyed. 

12. mz», ¢o answer, is here, as in other 
instances, used in the simple acceptation 
of speaking, or continuing a discourse. 
The language is that of intercessory 
expostulation. While all the heathen 
nations around Judea enjoyed prosperity, 
that country was still much in the same 
state in which it had been during the 
captivity. Some of the captives had re- 
turned, but they were too few to produce 
anything like a marked change in its 
circumstances. Vitringa, Stonard, and 
some others, without sufficient reason, 
think that a different term of seventy 
years is here intended from that pre- 
dicted Jer. xxv. 11, xxix. 10. What in 
reality were the years of indignation upon 
the cities, but the years of the captivity 
of their inhabitants? m2v Dovay ny, 
‘* these seventy years,’ express emphati- 
cally the period during which the cap- 
tivity had continued. Two of these 
years, dating from the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, had yet 
nearly to run before the expiration of 
the predicted period, so that the language 
of the expostulation is most appropriate, 
when viewed as calculated to meet the 
feelings of the Jewish people. 

13. That it is the same being who is 
styled nom? bra, the Angel of Jeho- 


4 


364 ZECHARIAH. 


14 with me with good and comfortable words. And the angel who 


Cuap. L. 


spake with me said to me, Cry, saying, 
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


I am zealous for Jerusalem, 


And for Zion, with great zeal ; 
15 AndIam very greatly displeased 
With the nations that are at ease ; 
Because I was a little displeased, 
And they helped forward the affliction. 
16 Wherefore, thus saith Jehovah: 
I have returned to Jerusalem in compassion : 
My house shall be built in her, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
And a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 


17. +~Cry again, saying, 


Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 

My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity ; 
For Jehovah will yet comfort Zion, 

And will yet take pleasure in Jerusalem. 


vah, that is here oe by the in- 
communicable name 745" , Jehovah, just 
as in the passages eastied by Gesenius, 
ver. 8, seems past dispute. As the Di- 
vine Mediator, after having made inter- 
cession with the Father, who is addressed 
by the title nisas min, Jehovah of 
hosts, he communicates to the interpret- 
ing angel the consolatory answer which 
was to be made to the prophet. p37 
bean2, are in apposition : lit. words, 
consolations, i. e. consolatory .words. 
LXX. Adyous mapaxAntixobs. Comp. 
Is. lvii. 18; Hos. xi. 8. 

14. This and the three following verses 
contain the consolatory words just refer- 
red to, which the prophet is commanded 
by the interpreting angel to communicate 
to the Jews. sxp construed with 3, or 
with the accusative, signifies to envy, be 
Jealous, indignant at any person or thing; 
with 4 as here, it is taken in a good sense, 
to be zealous for anything, actively to 
interest one’s self on behalf of any one. 
Comp. Numb. xxv. 11,13; 2 Sam. xxi. 
2; 1 Kings xix. 10. 


15. The adjective }282 signifies not 


merely to be at rest, as the whole earth 
is described, ver. 11, but, in a bad sense 
to live at ease, be carnally secure. The 
enemies of the Jews had not simply 
executed the Divine indignation against 
that people, but they had done it wan- 
tonly. Such seems to be the force of 
mead ants. 

16. The building of the temple had 
been begun, but it still lay for the most 
part in ruins, and was not finished till 
the sixth year of Darius. See Ezra vi. 
15. mp, for which the Keri has, by 
emendation, the more usual form “Ps 
occurs 1 Kings vii. 23 ; Jer. xxxi. 39. 

17. Few as were the inhabitants of 
Judea at the time of the vision, the land 
was speedily re-occupied ; and the popu- 
lation had greatly increased by the time 
of the Maccabees. Josephus informs us,. 
that, overflowing with numbers, Jerusa- 
lem gradually crept beyond its walls, 
till a fourth hill, called Bezetha, was 
covered with habitations. ‘2, Arab. 
Yak, aad, effusus fuit, to overflow. 
‘That the overflowing, however, is to be 
interpreted of prosperity, and not of the 


ee ee 








Cuap. I. 


18 


ZECHARIAH. 


£ 


365 


Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and, behold! four horns. 


19 And I said to the angel who spake with me, What are these? 
And he answered me, These are the horns which have scat- 
20 tered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. And Jehovah showed me 


91 four workmen. 


Then I said, What are these coming to do? 


And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered 


inhabitants, appears from the %a, indicat- 
ing the subject-matter, being prefixed 
to a4. 

VISION Il. 

18, 19. (Heb. ii. 1, 2.) This vision is 
so intimately connected with the preced- 
ing that the break in the Hebrew Bible 
here, occasioned by the commencement 
of a new chapter, is very unhappy. As 
usual in these visions, the hieroglyphic 
is first presented. IR» @ horn, is the 
symbol of a kingdom, or political pow- 
er, the figure being taken from bulls, 
and other horned animals having their 
strength in their horns, Thus the ten 
horns of the fourth beast in Daniel's 
vision, are symbolical of the ten king- 
doms into which the Roman empire was 
divided on the overthrow of the imperial 
throne, chap. vii. 20; and in the repre- 
sentation made of the same subject to 
John, the ten horns of the seven-headed 
beast are said to have upon them ten 
crowns, Rev. xiii, 1, xvii, 3. Comp. ver. 
12, where it is expressly stated, that * the 
ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
kings,” ¢. e. kingdoms, the ruling power 
being put for the whole government. The 
powers referred to by Zechariah were 
those which had been hostile to the 
Jews, and had scattered them abroad 
from their own land. Jerome, Kimchi, 
Abarbanel, Vatablus, and others, have 
been led by the occurrence of the num- 
ber four, to interpret the horns of the 
Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Ro- 
man empires; but to this exegesis it has 
justly been objected, that of these powers 
two were not yet in existence, and can- 
not be prophetically spoken of, because 
the hostility described was that which 
had already taken place. Neither is it 


true that the Jews were scattered by the 
Persian power as they had been by the 
Babylonian. What took place under 
Darius Ochus cannot be taken into the 
account here. The number is rather to 
be referred to the four quarters of the 
earth in their immediate relation to Pal- 
estine. Comp. chap. ii. 6. Thus Theo- 
doret, Clarius, Ribera, Sanchez, 4 Castro, 
Munster, Calvin, Newcome, Rosenmiil- 
ler, Hitzig, and Maurer. ‘ Jerusalem’’ is 
added to render the description more 
emphatic, being the metropolis, the site 
of the temple, and the royal residence. 

20, 21. (Heb. ii. 3,4.) Here, again, the 
same Divine Person is called >47>, who 
was formerly spoken of as ;n> xb. 
See on ver. 138. man, workmen in 
iron, brass, stone, or wood, from 3-1, ¢o 
cut, grave, fabricate. From the special 
employment assigned to these artificers, 
we may not inaptly compare *¢4h 
mn, workmen of destruction, which 
is rendered in our common version, “skil- 
ful to destroy,” Ezek. xxi. 36. The at- 
tempt of Blaney to justify his rendering 
the word by ploughmen, first suggested by 
Michaelis, must be regarded as a failure. 
On the inquiry being made, what these 
artificers were coming to do, a reply is 
given, which further describes the tyr- 
anny exercised over the Hebrew people, 
and then states that they were the instru- 
ments commissioned to.destroy the hostile 
powers. By again pressing the number 
four, interpreters have involved them- 
selves in inextricable difficulties. All 
that is meant to be conveyed, is the ad- 
equacy of the means employed to effect 
the punishment of the nations which 
had afflicted the people of God. That 
no appeal can be made, in illustration, 


366 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. II. 


Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these are come 
to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations, which 
raised the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. 


to the history of the four great monarch- 
ies, is proved by the fact that the work- 
men are represented as distinct from the 
horns, whereas these monarchies succes- 
sively destroyed each other. The rabbin- 
ical reference to the days of the Messiah 
is altogether aside from the point, as is 
likewise the reference which some have 
made to angels. There can be no doubt 
that the several human instrumentali- 
ties are intended, which God called into 
operation to crush the powers in the 
different countries around Palestine, by 
which it had been invaded, and its in- 
habitants carried away captive. The 
conjecture of Blaney, who would read 
s-111n instead of t-4n7, and, changing 
the punctuation of thnk into tnx, ren- 
ders, ‘to sharpen their coulter,” has not 


been approved. Nor is anything of the 
kind necessary. Terror implies a sense 
of inferiority, weakness, and exposure to 
suffering, and is here appropriately rep- 
resented, as a precursor of that overthrow 
to which the enemies of the Jews were 
to be subjected. Comp. Jud. viii. 12; 1 
Sam, xiv. 15; Ezek. xxx.9. m7» sig- 
nifies to throw, cast, stretch, the particu- 
lar manner of which is to be determined 
by the context. Here that of casting 
down, or effecting an overthrow, is the 
mode most naturally suggested. The 
signification to handle, exercise the hand, 
which some have proposed, is less apt, 
3, hand, being derived from the verb, 
and not the verb from the noun. "x, 
land, is here, as frequently, put for its 
inhabitants. 





CHAPTER II. 


In a third vision, a man with a measuring line is represented as going forth to take the di- 
mensions of Jerusalem with a view to its restoration to its former condition, ver. 1—3; 
an act which is virtually declared to be unnecessary, by the prediction that such should 
be the increase of the population, and such their prosperity, that the city should extend, 
like unwalled towns, into the surrounding localities; and that, under the immediate pro- 
tection of Jehovah, walls would be altogether unnecessary, 4, 5. In the faith of this 
prophetic announcement, and with a view to their escape from the judgment which was 
still about to be inflicted upon Babylon, the Jews which remained in that city are sum- 
moned to return from their captivity, 6,7; an assurance of Divine protection, and of the 
destruction of their enemies, is given them, 8, 9; and they are cheered by the promises, 
that Jehovah would again make Jerusalem his residence, and effect, in connection with 
the restoration of his people, the conversion of many nations to the true religion, 10, 12. 
A solemn call to universal reverence concludes the scene. 





TueEn I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, behold! a man 


VISION III. houses, but of the whole extent of the 
1—4. (Heb. ii. 5—7.) The measure- city. Jerusalem is not here considered 
ment here specified was not that of the as already rebuilt, as Stonard supposes. 


Cuap. II. 


ZECHARIAH. 


367 


2 with a measuring line in his hand. And I said: Whither art 
thou going? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see 
3 how much is the breadth thereof, and how much is the length 
thereof. And, behold! the angel who spake with me went forth, 


4 and another angel came forth to meet him. 


And he said to 


him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, 
Jerusalem shall be inhabited into the open country, 
Because of the multitude of men and cattle in the midst of her. 
5 And I will be to her, saith Jehovah, 


A wall of fire around, 


And will be the glory in the midst of her. 


The dimensions are those of the city be- 
fore its destruction by the Chaldeans, and 
were now being taken, in order to ascer- 
tain the extent of the work that was to 
be effected in its complete restoration. 
The symbolical action was calculated to 
encourage the Jews to proceed with the 
building of the temple which they had 
commenced. Who the measurer was has 
been disputed. Jarchi, J. H. Michaelis, 
Rosenmiiller, are of opinion that the 
angelus interpres is intended. Hengs- 
tenberg thinks that, in all probability, he 
is none other than the Angel of Jehovah 
himself. But for neither of these opin- 
ions is there sufficient foundation, any 
more than there is for the supposition of 
Blayney, that he was Nehemiah. He 
appears to be merely an additional per- 
son introduced in the scenic representa- 
tion, for the purpose of calling forth, by 
the significant action which he was about 
to undertake, the important information 
contained in the following part of the 
chapter. sx, as twice used here, has 
reference to two different localities: in 
the former instance, in which it is em- 
ployed of the interpreting angel, the 
presence of the prophet is the terminus 
a quo ; in the latter, that of the Angel of 
Jehovah. In opposition to the hypoth- 
esis of the Rabbins, Vatablus, Ribera, a 
Lapide, Drusius, Blayney, Rosenmiiller, 
Hengstenberg, and Knobel, who main- 
tain that Zechariah himself is meant by 
sm “yan, this young man, and argue 
from it, that the prophet was of youth- 


ful age at the time he had the vision, I 
cannot but concur with Stonard, Hitzig, 
Maurer, and Ewald, in thinking, that 
the person intended is the man with the 
measuring line, spoken of vers. 1, 2. 
The verb ¥3"5, run, implies the necessity 
of despatch, which could only have been 
occasioned by the intended procedure of 
the measurer. Heis arrested in his prog- 
ress, and virtually told, that the former 
dimensions of the city would be totally 
inadequate to contain the number of its 
inhabitants. ebdans agn rise, lit. ° 
Jerusalem shall dwell, or inhabit open 
places, i, e. the inhabitants will not con- 
fine themselves within her walls, but will 
occupy the localities in the open country 
around. Thus Symm. dre:xlorws ; Jar- 
chi and Jerome, m1 4"~%, absque muro, 
Comp. 1 Sam. vi. 18, where “TIES NED, 
the country village, is contrasted with 
“xan -°7, @ fortified city. See also 
Esth. ix, 19; Ezek. xxxviii. 11. 

5. (Heb. ver. 9.) Though “the wall 
of fire,” and “the glory,”’ are doubtless 
both to be taken figuratively, the former 
denoting certain protection, and the lat- 
ter, illustrious displays of the Divine 
presence in affording all needful supplies 
of grace, strength, and comfort, we are 
not hence to conclude with Stonard, that 
more is meant by the city than the literal 
Jerusalem, as the centre of the restored 
theocracy. The entire connection, and 
all the circumstances of the prophecy, 
demand this limitation. 


368 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. II. 


6 Ho! ho! flee from the north country, saith Jehovah, 


For as the winds of heaven 


Have I spread you abroad, saith Jehovah. 


7 Ho! deliver thyself, O Zion! 


That dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. 
8 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


6, 7. (Heb. 10, 11.) It is generally 
thought that the urgent calls here given 
to those Jews who still remained in 
Babylon, were designed to induce them 
to leave that devoted city before its ap- 
proaching siege and capture by Darius. 
In all probability many of them had 
acquired wealth, and might have been 
induced to remain in the enjoyment of 
their possessions. It was necessary that 
such should take the alarm, and, with 
the rest of their countrymen, avail them- 
selves without delay of the opportunity 
they now had of returning to their own 
land. The urgency of the call is ex- 
pressed by the repetitious form, 4m “47, 
Ho! Ho! which occurs, so far as I am 
aware, in no other part of Scripture. The 
verbs Dap, arise, 9123, hear, or the like, 
being readily suggested by the interjec- 
tion, will account for the use of the con- 
junctive Vau in 503). The land of the 
north is Babylon, and the regions adja- 
cent. See Jer. vi. 22, xvi. 15. Between 
the former and the latter clause of the 
verse there seems, at first sight, a palpa- 
ble discrepancy. How, it may be asked, 
could the scattering of the Jews like the 
four winds of heaven be a reason why 
those, in particular, who lived in the 
north quarter should return? But this 
apparent incohefence has originated in 
the supposition that the prophet here 
asserts the dispersion of that people into 
the four quarters of the globe. Had this, 
however, been his meaning, he would 
have employed % after the verb, as in 
Ezek. xvii. 31. Nor can such construc- 
tion be supported by substituting the 
various reading 3, viz. yaya, instead 
of >; for the words could then only 
properly be rendered, “I have scattered 
you dy,” and not ‘in’? or “ into the four 


winds.” This reading, though supported 
by fifteen MSS., originally by seven more, 
and perhaps by another, by thirteen print- 
ed editions, and by the Syr. and Vulg., is 
inferior in point of authority to that of the 
Textus Receptus. The meaning seemis to 
be, that the scattering of the Hebrew 
people had been so violent and extensive, 
that it could only be fitly compared to 
the force and effect of the combined 
winds of heaven being brought to bear 
upon any object susceptible of dispersion. 
The scattering had been most severely 
felt by those resident at the time of the 
vision in Babylon, and other regions in 
that quarter ; on which account it is de- 
scribed with special reference to them. 
"> is here used, not as a causative, but 
as a concessive participle, as in Gen. viii. 
21; Exod. xiii, 17... Nothing can be 
more forced, or unsuited to the connec- 
tion, than the interpretation, which. as- 
sumes that "n'y78 is future in significa- 
tion, and that the words contain a pre- 
diction of a future spreading .abroad of 
the Jews as missionaries among the 
heathen. What can be conceived more 
incongruous, than a return of the Jews 
from Babylon, induced by the motive of 
a still more extended dispersion among 
the nations of the earth, without the 
smallest hint of this as their destination ! 
By y4>%, Zion, are meant the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem, at that time still in 
Babylon. The words $aa—n2 n3v4" 
are not in apposition, but in ‘construction, 
and are equivalent to Hubitatrix Babelis. 
For this idomatic use of ma see on Is, 
i. 8. Comp. nyjxa—ng magi", Jer. 
xlvi. 19. ; 

8. (Heb. 12.) Some suppose the proph- 
et to be the person who here speaks of 
himself as having been sent; others, the 


ee 


Cuap. II. 


ZECHARIAH. 


369 


After the glory he hath sent me 
To the nations which spoiled you; 


Surely he that toucheth you 


Toucheth the pupil of his eye. 


9 For, behold! I will shake my fist at them, 


angel mentioned ver. 4; but that the 
Messiah is intended, must be inferred 
from what is predicated of him, ver. 9, 
that he would shake his hand at the 
nations which had afflicted the Jews. 
Comp. Is. xlviii, 16, where the divine 
mission of the Second Person of the 
Trinity is described in parallel language. 
Blayney, Newcome, Gesenius, Hitzig, 
Maurer, and Ewald, strangely concur in 
rendering be thaD “rms, He hath 
sent me after glory, i in the sense of, with 
a view to acquire it. In no other pas- 
sage, however, is sms employed, except 
as an adverb or preposition of place or 
time; nor is it ever connected as a prep- 
osition with mou. This verb is not even 
here construed with it, but with the prep- 
osition $s immediately following. It 
can only, therefore, be employed to 
denote the posteriority of the mission 
specified to the restoration of the glorious 
presence of the manifested Jehovah to 
his recovered people. Thus the LXX. 


oo Yo 
dmiow Sotovs. Syr. | pou 3L.5, after 


the glory, which is falsely rendered in 
the London Polyglott, ad prosequendum 
honorem. Targ. = nyt sp wy Ana 
jobs nyntsd, after the glory which he 
hath promised to bring to you. Vulg. 
post gloriam. Such exegesis is most 
naturally suggested by the use of =4x5 , 
glory, ver.5. After what had been there 
promised should have been accomplished, 
the Divine Legate had a commission to 
punish the nations in the immediate 
vicinity of the Holy Land, such as the 
Moabites, Idumeans, Ammonites, Philis- 
tines, and Syrians, by whom the Jews 
had been attacked and plundered on va- 
rious occasions, and especially on that of 
the Chaldean invasion. The Jews in 
Babylon needed, therefore, to be under 


47 


no apprehension from these enemies, and 
might return with confidence to their 
own land. The tender regard which 
Jehovah cherished for them, is expressed 
with exquisite beauty in the concluding 
clause of the verse. No member of the 
body is more susceptible of pain, or more 
vigilantly protected, than the eye, espec- 
ially the pupil, or aperture through which 
the rays of light pass to the retina. 723, 
in the phrase 43 nas, the pupil of the 
eye, Gesenius now derives from 33: , to 
bore, make hollow, and considers it to 
stand for mana, @ hole gate, like the 
Arab. ok ‘but his former etymology 


is preferable, according to which it is to 
be derived from maz, Arab. (Ls, dixie 
baba, Gr. wawndte, to say papa, spoken 
of a child. Hence the Arab. yee boo- 


boo (the origin of our English booby), pu- 
ellus, boy. ‘The phrase thus corresponds 
to the other Hebrew mode of expressing 
the same thing, 4°» yAw>s,, the little man 
of the eye, Deut. xxxii. 10; Prov. vii. 2. 
Both modes of expression, EPS o 


and natty ge Last, are used in ee 


bic; and the batt say in language quite 
parallel to that of the prophet, ef pa 


ese gies uy sis, He is 
dearer to me than the pupil of mine eye. 
Both modes are more expressive than the 
Latin of Catullus ; multo quod carius ili 
est oculis, or, nt te plus oculis mets ama- 
rem. 'The pronominal affix in 43>9 , Ais 
eye, is to be referred to nysays myn » 
Jehovah of hosts, at the beginning of the 
verse, the nominative to => nt oO, ud not 
with Kimchi, Blayney, Stonard, and oth- 
ers, to the enemy himself. 
9. (Heb. 13.) For the phrase +> 5-212, 

comp. Is, xi. 15, xix. 16. It is latins 


370 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. II. 


And they shall be a spoil to their slaves: 
And ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me, 


10 
For, behold! I come, 


Sing and rejoice, O canine of Zion! 


And I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. 
11 And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, 


And shall become my people ; 


And I will dwell in the midst of thee, 
And thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto 


thee. 


12 And Jehovah shall possess Judah his portion, 


In the holy land ; 


And shall again take pleasure in Jerusalem. 


13 


Let all flesh be silent before Jehovah, 


For he is roused from his holy habitation, 


tive of the threatening attitude of Jeho- 
vah when about to inflict vengeance upon 
his enemies. By pr7135, their slaves, 
are meant the Jews, whom the nations, 
either by capture or purchase, had 
brought into a state of slavery. Comp. 
Is. xiv. 2. »11, here and in ver. 11, 
signifies, as frequently, to know by expe- 
rience. 

10, 11. (Heb. 14, 15.) The divine res- 
idence here predicted, must be interpreted 
of that which took place during the so- 
journ of the Son of God in the land of 
Judea. The almost entire identity of 
the language here employed, with that 
used chap. ix. 9, where, in like manner, 
the daughter of Zion is called to hail the 
advent of her King, compels to this con- 
clusion. Comp. Ps. xl. 7; Is, xl. 9, 10. 
So evidently is this the only fair con- 
struction of the meaning, that Kimchi 
himself refers the passage ma"n 4*n33 
rwran , to future events in the times of 
the Messiah, The phrases sinn chen, 
crn tan, that day, those days, fre- 
quently point out the period of his man- 
ifestation and reign, With this appear- 
ance and residence of the Messiah are 


connected, as their consequents, the ex- 
tensive conversion of the heathen nations 
and their being constituted a people de- 
voted to his service and glory. The rep- 
etition of the prediction relative to his 
residence in Zion, is designed to express 
the certainty of the event. 

12, (Heb, 16.) As mention had just 
been made of the adoption of the nations 
to be the people of the Messiah, the 
prophet, to preclude the idea, that the 
Jews were no more to enjoy that privilege, 
proceeds to describe a future period, dur- 
ing which they should again be the ob- 
jects of the Divine favor and delight. 
Restored to the Holy Land, they shall 
again be the possession of the Lord. 
Comp. Exod, xxxiv. 9; Deut. iv. 20, ix. 
26, 29, xxxii. 9, The ideas suggested. 
by their being the possession of Jehovah 
are those of their being the objects of his 
regard and care. Ps. xxviii. 9. 

13. (Heb. 17.) A call to universal 
reverence and submission in prospect of 
the wonderful interpositions of Jehovah 
on behalf of his church, Comp. Ps. 
Ixxvi, 8, 9; Zeph, i. 7. 








Cuap. III. 


ZECHARIAH. 


371 


CHAPTER III. 


In this chapter a fourth vision is described, in which Joshua the high priest is represented 
as occupying his official position in the Divine presence at Jerusalem, but opposed in his 
attempt to recommence the service of Jehovah, by Satan, who accused him of being dis- 
qualified for the discharge of his functions, ver. 1. The accusation is met by a reprimand, 
drawn from the Divine purpose to restore Jerusalem, and the narrow escape which the 
priesthood had had from total extinction, 2. The guilt attaching to the high priest, in his 
representative capacity, and its removal, is next figuratively set forth,3—5. He has then 
a solemn charge delivered to him, followed by a conditional promise, 6, 7; after which 
we have a prediction of the Messiah, as a security that the punishment of the Jews would 
be entirely removed, their temple completely restored, and a period of prosperity intro- 


duced, 8—10. 





1  Awnp he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before 
the Angel of Jehovah, and the Adversary standing on his right 


hand to oppose him. 


VISION IV. 

1, The nominative to "29421 is the 
interpreting angel, understood. Comp. 
ch. i. 9. As the phrase *355 "¥, ¢o 
stand before, is sometimes used of appear- 
ing before a judge, Numb. xxxv. 12; 
Deut. xix. 17; 1 Kings iii. 16; it has 
been inferred that we have here the rep- 
resentation of a judicial transaction, an 
exegesis which is supposed to derive con- 
firmation from the circumstance of an 
accuser being mentioned in the following 
verse. But as the person here described 
is the high priest, and the phrase in ques- 
tion is that which is appropriated to ex- 
press the position of the priests when 
ministering to Jehovah, Deut. x. 8; 2 
Chron. xxix. 11; Ezek. xliv. 15; it is 
more natural to conclude that Joshua is 
here represented as having entered the new 
temple which was in the course of erec- 
tion, and taken his position in front of 
the altar before the holy of holies. The 
high priest not only entered the most 
sacred place once a year on the day of 
atonement, but was authorized to perform 
all the duteis of the ordinary priests; so 
that he may here be conceived of as about 
to offer sacrifice for the people, when he 
‘was opposed by Satan. That the altar 
of burnt offering was erected before the 


building of the temple was proceeded 
with, is clear, from Ezra iii. 2, 3, 6, 7. 
The mim yd, before whom Joshua 
stood, was no other than 74m himself, as 
ver. 2 evidently shows. It has been 
matter of dispute, whether by yu%m we 
are here to understand the great enemy 
of God and man 6 ayridixos, 1 Pet. v. 8; 
b karhywp, Rev. xii. 18 ; or, whether a hu- 
man adversary or adversaries are intended. 
Those who advocate the latter position 
think that Sanballat, or some other ene- 
my of the Jews, is meant; but the em- 
phatic form of the term, investing it, as 
it does, with the nature of a proper name 
(Gesen. Heb. Gram. § 107, 2), decidedly 
favors the former interpretation. We 
find this name given to the chief of the 
evil spirits in the book of Job, the most 
ancient in the Bible. See chap. i. and 
ii. Some have compared Ps. cix. 6, but 
the parallel term yy is against such 
construction in that passage. From the 
identity of the phraseology, however, 
which represents the adversary as taking 
his place at the right hand of the accused, 


it has been concluded, that it was cus- 
tomary in the Jewish courts for the accu- 


ser to assume this position. What the 
ground of opposition on the part of Satan 
was, we are not here informed; but if 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. III. 


2 And Jehovah said to the Adversary, 
Jchovah rebuke thee, O Adversary! 
Even Jehovah that taketh delight in Jerusalem, rebuke thee ; 
Is not this a brand snatched from the fire ? 
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and he stood 
4 before the Angel. And he answered and spake to those that 
stood before him, saying, Remove the filthy garments from him. 
And he said to him, See! I have caused thine iniquity to pass 


the construction put by some eminent 
commentators upon Jude 9, which re- 
solves ‘the body of Moses,” there men- 
tioned, into the Jewish church, and 
supposes the apostle to refer to the 
passage before us, be the true one (and 
of this I cannot entertain a doubt), it 
will follow, that the character of the 
Jewish people, as not having been legally 
purified from their idolatries, and the 
backwardness which they evinced in re- 
building the temple, were urged as pleas 
against them. It is true, the opposition 
is said to have been made to Joshua; but 
it must be remembered that he appears 
here, not in his personal, but in his offi- 
cial character, as the representative of 
the whole body of the people. 

2. Almost all the commentators, even 
Maurer and Hitzig, agree in the opinion, 
that the incommunicable name mim, 
Jehovah, is here given to the angel spoken 
of in the preceding verse. See on ch. i. 8. 
So obvious did this appear to the Syriac 
translator, from the spirit of the context, 


that he renders ous Lazio, the 
Angel of the Lord, a rendering which 
Newcome would, very uncritically, have 
admitted into the text. The interpreta- 
tion of Rosenmiiller, “ vocatur legatus 
de nomine principis sui,” is a pure fiction, 
and directly opposed to Scripture usage. 
The verb -¥: signifies to chide, rebuke, 
so as to silence those who are the objects 
of the reproof, and restrain them from 
carrying their designs into effect. It is 
repeated for the sake of emphasis, to 
express the absolute certainty that the 
machinations of Satan should prove utter- 


ly abortive. In the reference to the Divine 
choice of Jerusalem, there is a recogni- 
tion of the promise, ch. i. 17, ii. 12. The 
pointed interrogation has respect to Josh- 
ua, and forcibly, though tacitly, conveys 
the idea, that his deliverance, and that 
of the people whom be represented, from 
the destruction which threatened them 
in Babylon, was the result of sudden 
and efficient interposition on the part of 
Jehovah. It was not, therefore, for a 
moment to be supposed that he would 
now withdraw his favor from them, and 
abandon them to their enemies. He had 
rescued them, in order that they might. 
be preserved. 

3, 4. Because the Romans used to 
clothe persons who were accused in a 
sordid dress, Drusius and others have 
imagined that the idea of a criminal is 
still kept up. That the filthy garments 
in which Joshua appeared were symbol- 
ical of the guilt and punishment of the 
Jews, seems beyond dispute ; just as their 
removal, and his investment with splen- 
did attire, indicates a state of restoration 
to the full enjoyment of their religious 
privileges, xis, filth, is used meta- 
phorically to denote the moral pollution 
contracted by sin, See Prov. xxx. 12; 
Is. iv. 4. He is represented as appearing 
in the squalid garments in which he had 
returned from a state of captivity in 
Babylon, and as having restored to him 
the gorgeous dress of the high priest. 
rst, costly or splendid habiliments, 
such as were worn on special occasions, 
and put off as soon as the occasion was 
over. See on Is. iii. 22. Those who are 
here commanded to change the dress of 








Sas a eS 


ee eee ee a 


el ma! 


eee. eT ee 


cat in i be a es's 


Cuap. IIL 


ZECHARIAH. 373 


5 away from thee, and I will invest thee with costly habiliments. 
He then said, Let them place a pure mitre upon his head. And 
they placed the pure mitre upon his head, and invested him with 

6 the habiliments. Then the Angel of Juhovel stood up. And 
the Angel of Jehovah protested to Joshua, saying : 

7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 

If thou wilt walk in my ways, 
And if thou wilt observe my charge, 
Then thou shalt both judge my house, 


Joshua are not, as Ewald supposes, atten- 
dant priests, but attendant angels. The 
nominative to 4723 and W3E> is rho, 
and not yoin. vz “227 does not 
mean, as Gesenius interprets, to let in- 
iquity or sin pdss by, but to remove its 
guilt or punishment, and thus effectively 
to remit or forgive. This guilt or pun- 
ishment is represented as having lain as 
a heavy load upon Joshua, and to have 
been removed S312, from upon him. 
v2abm is not to be chaired into vats, 
as in the Targ. and Syr., but is to be re- 
garded as a not unusual elliptical form 
of the idiomatic yay wabr". 

5. The punctuation =%5 1 is obviously 
incorrect, since it introduces the prophet 
as taking a part in the transactions ex- 
hibited in the vision, which is altogether 
foreign to the position he occupied. The 
word should be pointed "E81, and has 
been so read by the Targ., Syr., and 
Vulg. translators. S23, tara, or tur- 
ban, is used instead of re:z%, the term 
employed in the Pentateuch to denote 
this part of the high priest’s dress. LX X, 
Kidapis. At c-122 the adjective Beane 
is to be supplied’ from the preceding, or 
the article may be understood.’ 2° is 
more appropriately rendered “stood up,”’ 
than, as in our common version, * stood 
by.” The latter rendering presents the 
Angel of Jehovah to view as a simple 
spectator; the former in the solemn pos- 
ture of one who is about to deliver an 
important charge. And this, as the fol- 
lowing verses show, was precisely the 
character in which he appeared. He had 
been sitting upon his throne, but now 


rises to announce the divine decree re- 
specting the -responsible duties which 
devolved upon Joshua in his sacerdotal 
capacity. I do not agree with Dr. Ston- 
ard, who supposes that the Angel as- 
sumed the character and position of a 
witness. The participial form of the 
verb is adopted for the purpose of vary- 
ing the style. 

6,7. sa, as here used in Hiphil, sig- 
nifies, to make a solemn declaration. 
LXX.° deuapriparo. Targ. and Syr. 
s"mos. Vulg. contestabutur, MNOS 
my charge, means the laws, prescriptions, 
or rites, which I have given in charge, 
namely, the Mosaic Institute. Obedi- 
ence to this the high priest was bound to 
render himself, and upon him supremely 
devolved the obligation to see that it was 
obeyed by others, myeo. , from =29, 
to guard, keep, observe, i is frequently used 
by Moses to denote the office, duty, or 
charge, to which the priests were to at- 
tend. See Lev. viii. 25; Numb. i. 53, 
iii. 28, 31, 32, 38. By the “ house”’ of 
the Lord here, we are not to understand 
the temple, as some have imagined, but 
the people of Israel, viewed as composing 
his household or family. Comp. Numb. 
xii. 7 ; Hos. viii. 1, ix. 15. i732, to judge, 
is always employed in reference to per- 
sons; never with respect to things 
There appears ‘to be in the declaration 
here made, an anticipation of the part 
which the sacerdotal family of Joshua 
was to take in the government of the 
Jewish state e-strig is a Hiphil par- 
ticiple of 5>n , just as “ctr is of 
bon, Jer. xxix. 8; et eit, of 433, 


374 ZECHARIAH. 


And keep my courts, 


Cuap. III. 


And I will give thee guides among these who are standing by. 
Hear now, O Joshua! the high priest, 
Thou and thy companions that sit before thee ; 


2 Chron. xxviii, 23. It must, therefore, 
signify those who cause to go or walk, 
leaders, conductors, guides. Who these 
were we are not informed, farther than 
that they were standing in the pres- 
ence of the Angel, and were pointed at 
by him. Some have thought that the 
subordinate priests who attended upon 
Joshua are intended; but such interpre- 
tation is altogether unsuitable to the dig- 
nified character which, as high priest, he 
sustained. As none but superior beings 
could be his leaders or conductors, it fol- 
lows that the angels must be meant. 
This view is confirmed by the circum- 
stance of their being represented as 
“standing,” namely, in the presence of 
Jehovah, ready to execute his behests, 
whereas the subordinate priests are 
spoken of in the following verse as “ sit- 
ting’’ before Joshua. The import of the 
promise is, that he and his successors in 
office should enjoy the care, direction, 
and aid of celestial spirits in the manage- 
ment of the national affairs. Munster, 
Vatablus, Rosenmiiller, Ewald, and Hit- 
zig, take t~s¢r%9 to be the plural of the 
noun 55772, @ walk, or walking place ; 
but this affords no appropriate sense, ex- 
cept it be referred to the heavenly state 
—a construction put upon the clause by 
the Targum, Kimchi, and several Chris- 
tian interpreters, but which is little suited 
to the language of the connection, and is 
a mode of representation otherwise for- 
eign to Scripture. 

8. The companions of Joshua were the 
ordinary priests, who were associated 
with him for the purpose of carrying on 
the service of the temple. They are rep- 
resented as “sitting before” him, not at 
the time the words are addressed to him, 
for they are spoken of in the third per- 
son, but usually, when consulting to- 
gether about religious matters. On such 


occasions he occupied a more elevated 
seat or throne as their president, while 
they sat on chairs or benches before him. 
By res "38, men of sign, or portent, 
are meant symbolical men, persons pre- 
figuring, or foreshadowing some person 
or persons still future. Comp. Is. viii. 
18, xx. 3: Ezek, xii. 6, xxiv. 27. That 
only one person is here referred to as 
typified by the Jewish priests, and that 
this one person is none other than the 
Messiah, the following clause of the verse 
incontrovertibly shows. In their sacerdo- 
tal character, and in the presentation of 
sacrifices before Jehovah, they foreshad- 
owed the High Priest of our profession, 
Christ Jesus, and the one sacrifice which 


he offered for sins, when he presented 


himself as a propitiatory victim in the 
room of the guilty. For the derivation 
of ret, see on Joel ii, 30. Though 
mT » they are, refers immediately to the 
subordinate priests, we are not to suppose 
that Joshua is excluded, or that he was 
not a symbolical person as well as they. 
This use of the third person of the pro- 
noun instead of the second is not with- 
out example. See Zeph. ii. 12. The 
author of the Targum admits that by 
mas, Branch, the Messtan is meant. 
His words are, *ban=7 sts ona Ht, 
« My Servant, the Messiah who shall be 
revealed.” ‘The same interpretation is 
found in other Jewish authorities, as both 
Kimchi and Rashi admit. Some few 
Christian interpreters, among whom Gro- 
tius and Blayney, adopting the opinion of 
the two Rabbins just mentioned, suppose 
Zerubbabel to be intended; but in my 
opinion very preposterously, for that 
prince was already in existence, and in 
the full exercise of his official duties; 
whereas the person to whom Jehovah 
refers had not yet appeared. Even Ges- 
enius, Hitzig, and Maurer, make no scru- 


Cuap. IIL. 


(For they are typical persons) 


ZECHARIAH. 


370 


For, behold! I will introduce my servant THE BRANCH. 
9 For, behold! the stone which I have laid before Joshua, 

Upon the one stone shall be seven eyes: 

Behold! I will form the sculpture thereof, 


ple in applying the title to the Messiah. 
It is that given to him, Is. iv. 2; Jer. 
xxili. 5, xxxiii. 15; and Zech. vi. 12; 
and is equivalent to Son. See on Is. iv. 
2, where it is shown that in the writings 
of the ancient Persians, * the branch” of 
any one means his son, or one of his pos- 
terity. The verb mraz , from which the 
noun is derived, signifies to spring forth 
or up, as plants; but the LXX. have 
adopted the word dvaroA}, which ex- 
presses the sun-rise, Hence the Saviour 
is called dvarcAh && tous, “the Day- 
spring from on high,’’ Luke i. 78. Comp. 

Mal. iv. 2, where mp7 v8 ann , the 
Sun of righteousness shall arise,” is ren- 
dered by the LXX. dvareAc? Hauos dixar- 
ocivns. The Vulg. adducam servum 
meum orientem. For" 2y , my servant, 
as a designation of the Messiah, comp. 
Is. xlii. 1—7, xlix. 1—9, 1. 5—10, lii. 
13—liii.; and see my Comm. on the first 
of these passages. 

9. Most interpreters regard this verse 
as a continuation of the subject treated 
of at the close of the preceding, and ex- 
plain the j23, stone, of the Messiah in 
accordance with such passages as Ps. 
exviii. 22; Is, xxviii. 16. This view is 
largely insisted upon by Stonard; but 
what, in my judgment, renders it alto- 
gether untenable, is the circumstance that 
the stone is spoken of as having been laid 
before, or in the presence of, Joshua— 
language which can with no propriety be 
employed with reference to the Messiah. 
Neither can the reference be to 4237 
bonan, the plummet, spoken of ch. iv. 
10, that being represented as in the hand 
of Zerubbabel, and not placed or laid be- 
fore his associate in the government. I 
cannot, therefore, imagine any other stone 
to be here intended than the foundation 
stone of the temple, which had been laid 


by Zerubbabel in the presence of Joshua 
and his brethren the priests, who celebra- 
ted the joyful event in songs of praise to 
Jehovah. Ezra iii. 8—13. When it is 
said, that upon this ‘‘one stone” were 
‘seven eyes,” we are not to conclude 
that they were exhibited upon it. The 
meaning is, that they were directed 
towards it, or intent and fixed upon 
it, as an object cf special attention and 
care. While with us an eye is the 
hieroglyphic of. Divine Providence, the 
Hebrews, to express the perfection of 
knowledge and wisdom in which all its 
affairs are conducted, employed the hie- 
roglyphic of ‘seven eyes,” — seven, in 
the Oriental style, denoting fulness or 
perfection. Such symbolic representa- 
tions were common among the Persians. 
Comp. Rev. i. 4,v. 6. Jehovah here de- 
clares, that the erection of the temple, 
the commencement of which had been 
made, in the course of his providence, 
by the laying of the foundation, should 
be an object of his special care and re- 
gard. For by yy. the eye being upon 
any person or thing, as denoting the 
exercise of kind and vigilant care, see 
Ps. xxxii. 8. The attempt of Vitringa 
and Blayney to explain t*3"», of foun- 
tains, and so apply the passage to liv- 
ing waters flowing from Christ as the 
antitype of the rock smitten in the wil- 
derness is a complete failure. The sin- 
gular 4°», signifies, indeed, fountain as 
well as eye, but it is a settled principle 
of Hebrew grammar than when foun- 
tains are intended, the plural feminine 
is uniformly employed, just as the dual 
crn y is as uniformly and exclusively 
used to express eyes. See for the princi- 
ple, Gesen. Lehrgeb. pp. 539, 540. That 
the dual is employed to express things 
that exist in pairs, even when more 


376 ZECHARIAH. 


Saith Jehovah of hosts ; 


Cuap. IV. 


And I will remove the punishment of that land in one day. 
10 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 

Ye shall each invite his neighbor, 

Under the vine, and under the fig tree. 


than two is intended, see on Is. vi. 
2, mnne nme can, Behold! I will 
form the sculpture thereof ; lit. «I will 
open the opening thereof.” What kind 
of architectural ornaments are hereby in- 
tended, it is impossible to say; but that 
they were cut out or engraven in the 
foundation-stone, the exigency of the 
place requires, except we regard the stone 
as here used by synecdoche for the whole 
temple, in which case reference will be 
had to the finishing off of the structure, 
the foundation of which had been laid 
in the presence of Joshua. LXX. dpicow 


. -, vo v o 
péspor. Syt- chad 3.2 13} mds jor, 
‘Behold, I open the gates of it.” 3a 
is here used in Kal, but with a causative 
signification : to remove, cause to depart. 


5*2 is to be understood, not of iniquity, 
but of the punishment of iniquity — 


the troubles and sufferings to which the 
Jews were subjected on account of it. 
Thus the iniquity of Sodom, Gen. xix. 
15, was the punishment to be inflicted 
upon it; and that of Babylon, Jer. li. 6, 
the same. The land of Judea had borne 
its punishment during the captivity, but 
was now to be occupied and cultivated. 
To sufferings the Jews were still exposed 
on the part of their enemies, who caused 
an interruption of the building of the 
temple, and prevented the comfortable 
settlement of the people in their own 
land. For their encouragement Jehovah 
promises to put an end to their distress, 
“ny bisa, in one day ; i. e. soon, in the 
shortest space of time. smn ‘yusn is 
specifically the land of Palestine. , 

10. A promise of the tranquillity and 
social enjoyment that were to be experi- 
enced by the restored Hebrews. 





CHAPTER IV. 


UnvER the symbol of a golden candlestick is represented the pure and flourishing state of 
the Jewish church as restored after the captivity, 1—8. The signification of this symbol 
the prophet is left to find out, 4,5; only a clue is given him in the message which he was 
commissioned to deliver relative to the completion of the temple, in spite of the formid- 
able difficulties which interposed, and to the Messiah who was to come after the temple 
was in a finished state, 6,7. He was further instructed to announce the certainty of the 
former event, on the ground that Zerubbabel, who superintended the work, was under 
the special care of Divine Providence, which should so arrange the course of human 
affairs as to render them subservient to the undertaking, 8—10.. Under the additional 
symbol of two olive trees, which supplied the candlestick with the necessary oil, are rep- 
resented Joshua and Zerubbabel, the two principal official persons in the new state, 11—14. 





1 Awp the angel who spake with me. awoke me again, like one 


VISION VY. 


1. We are not to conclude from the 


use of the verb a; at the beginning of 


this verse, that the communicating angel 
had removed to a distance from the 
prophet, and now returned to him. 


ee 





ee 





Cuap. IV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


377 


2 who is waked out.of his sleep. And he said to me, What dost 
thou see? And I said, I see, and behold! a candlestick wholly 
of gold, and its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps 


When employed by itself, a1w certainly 
signifies to return; but, according to a 
common Hebrew idiom, when used be- 
fore another verb, it merely indicates the 
repetition of the action expressed by such 
verb, See Gen. xxvi. 18, xxx. 31; 2 
Kings i. 11, 13. Connecting the verb in 
this manner with »:47»~4,, reference will 
be had, not to any absence of the angel, 
but to his renewed excitement of the 
prophet to give his attention to another 
vision which was to be presented to his 
view. He had become so absorbed in the 
contemplation of the preceding vision, 
that he required to be roused, as in the 
case of a person in profound sleep. 

2. Instead of the second -yzN>1, a 
vast number of the MSS. read correctly 
“817, as the word is found also in some 
of the earliest editions. Many MSS. 
and several printed editions exhibit mba 
without Mappick in the m, and thus 
bring the word into accordance with the 
feminine form, as occurring in the fol- 
lowing verse. It has been thus read by 
the LXX. and Syr.; still it seems prefer- 
able to regard it as a masculine noun, and 
read =>, with the pronominal affix. It 
signifies an oil-cup, bowl, or basin, and 
was placed at the top of the candlestick 
for the purpose of supplying with oil the 
small tubes or pipes leading to the sev- 
eral lamps. Considerable difficulty has 
been found in endeavoring to account for 
the double numeral form -yay1+ myQU, 
seven and seven. Some think the num- 
ber is to be multiplied by itself, and ren- 
dered forty-nine; but this is not only 
abhorrent from the representation other- 
wise given of the candlestick, but is un- 
warranted by Hebrew usage. Others, 
as Stonard, take the words in a distribu- 
tive sense, and make the number to be 
fourteen, understanding by seven and 
seven, twice seven. To this hypothesis, 
however, the copulative Vau forms an 


48 


insuperable objection, since it conveys 
the idea not of distribution merely, but 
also that of diversity or variety. The 
instance adduced from 1 Kings viii, 65, 
is not exactly parallel, as the noun is 
there repeated, which is not the case in 
Zechariah ; nor, so far as I can find, do 
we meet with any instance parallel to 
Nips HyI291 Hy2v. Our translators 
remove the one seven, and place it before 
‘lamps ;”’ but such construction is alto- 
gether unwarranted, and, indeed, they 
appear to have placed only a qualified 
reliance upon it, for they render in the 
margin, seven several pipes. There is 
every reason to suspect that the former 
mzav is an interpolation which has found 
its way into some ancient MSS. and been 
copied into all the rest. This suspicion 
is confirmed by two circumstances. The 
word oceurs only once both in the LXX. 
and the Vulg. The former renders: xa) 
énra €mapvoTpides Tois AUXVoLs ToOLs emdyw 
abrijs;. the latter, e¢ septem infusoria 
lucernis, que erant super caput ejus. The 
other circumstance is, that, as in con- 
formity to the number of lamps belong- 
ing to the candelabrum in the tabernacle, . 
Exod. xxv. 37, from which the symbol 
was evidently. borrowed, it is expressly 
stated, that there were only nin mya¥, 
seven lamps attached to that presented to 
view in the vision, we cannot conceive of 
there being to each two pipes or conduc- 
tors for the oil. The p25 i», reeds or 
tubes of Moses, Exod. xxv. 32, 33, 35, 

xxxvii. 18, and the Mipsis, pipes or 
tubes of Zechariah, both signify the same 
objects, viz., those used for conveying the 
oil into the lamps. .The latter word is 
derived from p> to pour or flow. Vulg. 

infosoria. That the candlestick was sym- 
bolical of the Jewish church cannot be 
doubted.. Comp. Rev. i. 20; xi. 4, where 
the same symbol is. used in reference to 
Christian churches, The idea-which it 


378 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. IV. 


3 upon it, and seven pipes to the lamps which are upon the top 


of it. 


And two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of 


4 the bowl, and one on the left side of it. And I addressed my- 
5 self farther to the angel who spake with me, saying, What are 


these, my lord ? 


And the angel who spake with me answered 


6 and said to me, Dost thou not know what these are? And I 
said, No, my lord. And he answered and spake to me, saying, 
This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying : 

Not by might, nor by power, 
But by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. 


7 Who art thou, O great mountain ? 


Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain : 


conveys is that such churches are placed 
in the world for the sake of its illumina- 
tion. Thus it was with the Jewish church 
in the midst of the surrounding darkness 
of Paganism ; and thus it hath been with 
Christian churches in every age of their 
history. 

3. Of what the two olive-trees were 
emblematical, we learn from ver. 14. 

4, 5. 2x, like aoxpivoum in the New 
Testament, signifies to proceed or begin to 
speak, as well as to answer. It is obvi- 
ously thus used at the beginning of ver, 
4, Comp. chap. i. 10. While the angel 
had it in commission to explain what was 
meant by these trees, he was to reserve 
the explanation till after he had made 
certain communications relative to the 
building of the temple, and the advent 
of Messiah. 

6. From the purport of the message 
which the prophet was to deliver to Ze- 
rubbabel, it may be inferred that he was 
laboring under despondency, produced by 
the consideration of the powerful opposi- 
tion with which he had to contend, the 
greatness of the undertaking in which he 
had embarked, and the inadequacy of 
the human means which he had at his 
disposal. Between $-m and p> there is 
no clearly defined difference of meaning. 
They are both used equally of physical 
and of mental and moral power ; and are 
here employed as synonymes, to express 
the idea that human might, of whatever 


description, was of no account with the 
Almighty; that he can effect his pur- 
poses by few as well as by many, by those 
whom the world accounts foolish as well 
as by those of superior intellect ; and that 
it is by the exercise of his own spiritual 
agency exciting to action, and sustaining 
and giving efficiency to it, that its per- 
formance is secured. There seems to be 
here a reference to what we read, Hag- 
gai, il. 5: “* My Spirit remaineth among 
you: fear ye not.” The truth, however, 
is of universal application, and is clearly 
taught in the New Testament in refer- 
ence to the conversion of sinners, 1 Cor. 
iii. 6; 2 Cor. x. 4; Eph.i. 19: Col. i. 12. 

7. However lowly the feelings enter- 
tained by Zerubbabel, he is here taught 
by the sublime and noble figure of the 
depression of a large mountain into a 
level plain, that none of the formidable 
impediments which he apprehended, 
should, in the smallest degree, obstruct 
his progress “x, who, sometimes refers 
to things, yet so as to include the idea of 
the human agency connected with them, 
Before =42-195 supply stm or minn. 
The interpretation of Stonard, who ap- 
plies the mountain to the Christian 
church, is altogether forced and inept. 
By nian jas is meant, not any stone 
uniting the two sides of a building at the 
top, but the dapis angularis, or founda- 
tion stone, on which at the angle both 
rest, and which, being necessarily much 





CuHap. IV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


379 


And he shall bring forth the Chief Stone, 
With shouts of Grace! Grace to it! 
8 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to me saying, 
-9 The hands of Zerubbabel have founded this house, 


And his hands shall finish it : 


And ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me to you. 
10 For who hath despised the day of small things ? 


larger and more ponderous, as well as 
more serviceable than any other, was 
fully entitled to the distinctive character 
of the chief or principal stone. The 
foundations of the literal temple having 
already been laid by Zerubbabel, it must 
be obvious, that the language is merely 
borrowed from that event, and that his 
attention is directed to Him of whom 
David had prophesied as m38 x4 jas, 
the chief or principal corner stone, Ps. 
exviii. 26, and who is called in the New 
Testament, Kegadh ywvias, and AiSos 
&xpoywviaios. Symm. renders: rdév AlSov 
tov &xpov; Theod. rdv AiSov toy mpTov 5 
Aq. tov AiSov tov mpwredwyra; all con- 
veying the idea of the primary or prin- 
cipal stone of the building. The LXX. 
mistaking myNwn for my74, render, rdv 
AiSov THs KAnpovoulas. "The nominative 
to x*z4m is not Zerubbabel, but Jehovah. 
This was perceived by the Targumist, 
who puts the same Messianic interpreta- 
tion upon the passage, paraphrasing it 
thus: wad “st ett mo tda7 
in itthe toa wide 177 stn, And he 
shall reveal his Messiah, who was named 
of old, and he shall rule over all king- 
doms. ‘The introduction of this stone 
was to be accompanied with acclamations 
of «* Grace, Grace to it.” Miah th shouts 
or acclamations, from > , to make @ 
noise, shout aloud, cry as a se aie ; hence 
the noun came to signify the shouting 
of a multitude, The repetition of yn, 
Savor or grace, is for the sake of inten- 
sity; and the ascriptions of this favor to 
the stone (=>) implies that it was pos- 
sessed of this ‘quality, and was to be the 
medium or means of its conveyance to 
others. This prediction was clearly ful- 


filled in our Redeemer. “ Grace,” or 
favor, “ was poured through his lips.” ' 
Ps, xlv. 8. At his birth the nixwn, 
acclamations of the heavenly choir, were, 
* Glory to God in the highest, on earth 
peace, goodwill toward men.” Luke ii. 
14. As he approached Jerusalem, the 
multitudes were loud in their acclaims 
of “Hosanna to the Son of David. 
Blesssed be he that cometh in the name 
of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest.” 
Nor is the phrase, * The grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ,” of unfrequent occur- 
rence in the New Testament. The usual 
application of the words to the comple- 
tion of the work of grace in the soul of 
a believer, or to the addition of the last 
convert to the church, is quite incongru- 
ous. Whatever grace is possessed by the 
people of God is altogether derived, and 
is not to be ascribed to themselves, but to 
him to whom alone they are indebted for 
its communication. It may farther be 
observed, that perhaps the repetition in 
the phrase jn jm, Grace, Grace, may 
have been intended to express the infinite 
value of the Corner Stone. In Prov. 
xvii. 8, we read that “a gift is 4m 428, 
a precious stone in the eyes of him that 
hath it ;” and one of the qualities of a 
stone laid for a foundation in Zion is, 
that it is n= 1p* » precious. Is, xxviii. 16. 

9,10. sno" is the Preterite of Piel. 
ys3 signifies to cut, cut off, bring to an 
end, Jinish, in which last acceptation it 
is here used. The verse contains a posi- 
tive assurance that the temple should be 
completed by Zerubbabel. ‘The day of 
small things’ means the short period 
which had elapsed since the Jews had 
begun to rebuild the temple, and the 


330 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. IV. 


For those seven eyes of Jehovah 
Which run to and fro through the whole earth rejoiced, : 
When they saw the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.. 


11 


Then I proceeded and said to him, What are these two olive- 


trees on the right side of the candlestick, and on the left:of it ? 
12 And I proceeded a second time, and said to him, What are the 
two branches of the olive-trees, which, by means of the two. 
13 tubes of gold, empty the golden liquid out of themselves ? And 


14 he spake to me, saying, 


commencement, which had been incon- 
siderable and inauspicious. The efforts 
bore no proportion to the magnitude of 
the undertaking, and could only provoke 
the scorn and contempt of unbelievers. 
ya, is derived from 772, a8 29 is from 

20; only with the signification of 733 
iad mia, to despise. 442 otherwise sig- 
nifies io idohebslor| sport. With the human 
estimate of the enterprise, forcibly ex- 
pressed in the interrogative form, that of 
Jehovah is strikingly contrasted. » His 
eyes rejoiced when they saw the work 
marked out by Zerubbabel with the plum- 
met. This instrument was called j23 
Sonam, the stone of separation, because 
it consisted of the alluy of lead or tin, 
which was separated by smelting from 
the silver ore with which it was com- 
bined. The Vau prefixed in 4>1 is to 
be rendered when, as in Tb, Judges 
xix. 1, The nominative to wT anne 
is s$s—nva¥, with which nym "29, 
as expletive, is in apposition. This, which 
appears to me to be the only tenable con- 
struction, is that given in the margin by 
our Translators. It relieves the passage 
from the burden of fanciful conjectures 
which had been advanced in regard to 
the meaning, and brings out the simple 
but encouraging truth, that, how much 
soever men might despise the commence- 
ment of the work in which Zerubbabel 
and his compatriots were engaged, it was 
the object of peculiar regard and delight 
to Divine Providence, which was ac- 
quainted with all human designs, and 
from its universal activity could not only 
defeat the machinations ‘of enemies, but 


Knowest thou not what these are? And 


command the agency of those who should 
help forward the cause of truth and right- 
eousness,. Comp. chap. ‘iii. 9 ;°2 Chron, 
xvi. 9; Prov. xv.-3. © 

11, 12. It is not a little remarkable 
that the prophet had'to ‘put the question 
three times respecting the two olive-trees, 
before he: received ‘any reply ; first, ver. 
4; a second time ver. 11; and a third 
time ver. 12.. The question is varied 
each time, and becomes’ at last minute 
and particular. The reason seems to be, 
that it could searcely be conceived pos- 
sible for him not to -understand «their 
symbolical reference’ to the two most re- 
markable persons with whom he was con- 
versant, Joshua and Zerubbabel. nb23, 
a branch, LXX. Kaddos, so called from 
its resemblance to an ear of grain. “m2, 
a tube or canal, through which oil or any 
other liquid is poured. ‘The etymology 
of this quadriliteral is uncertain. LXX. 
pvtwripes. With the tubes the two 
branches were exhibited as connected, to 
indicate the source whence the candle- 
stick was supplied with oil. - By ann. 
the gold, is meant the oil, which is so 
called because its purity and brightness 
resembled those of: gold. 

14, srsomman *30 , two sons of oil, 
i. e. two anointed ones, Joshua and Ze- 
rubbabel, who are so called, because, 
when installed into office, they had oil 
poured upon their heads as a symbol of 
the gifts and influences of the Holy 
Spirit, which alone could fit them rightly 
to discharge their important functions. 
Their services to the new state were of 
such value that they might well be rep- 


Cuar. V. ZECHARIAH. 381 


I said, No, my lord. Then he said, These are the two anointed 
ones, that stand before the Lord of the whole earth. 


resented as furnishing it instrumentally »2sby extn , who stand before. The 
with what was necessary for enabling it _ phrase expresses the posture of servants 
to answer the purposes of its establish- _ waiting to receive orders from their mas- 
ment. $y o> 7297 is elliptical for— ters, 





CHAPTER V. 


THE two visions exhibited in this chapter are of a very different character from any of the 
foregoing, and were designed to furnish striking and instructive warnings to such of the 
Jews as might refuse to render obedience to the law of God, and might not have been 
thoroughly weaned from idolatry. In verses 1—4, is the description of a flying roll, pre- 
sented to the view of the prophet, on which were inscribed the threatenings of the Divine 
law, which still remained in all their force, and were ever ready to be executed upon 
transgressors. In verses 5—11, the means are emblematically set forth which Jehovah 
had employed for the entire removal of idolatry from the Holy Land, and its abandon- 
ment to mingle with its native elements in Babylon —the land of graven images. 





1 Awnp I again raised my eyes, and looked, and, behold! a fly- 
2 ing roll. And he said to me, What seest thou? And I said, I 


see a flying roll, the length of which is twenty cubits, and the 


VISION VI. : 

1. For the adverbial use of 2535 see 
on chap. iv..1. mba%, @ volume or roll, 
from the root $43, ¢o roll. The ancients 


wrote upon the inner bark of trees, which 


was rolled up for the sake of convenience, 


and for the better preservation of the 


writing. They also used rolls of papyrus 
and of the dressed skins of animals. Aq. 
and Theod. render the word by &:3épa, 
a skin or parchment ; Symm. by kegaals, 
the term by which the LXX. have ren- 
dered it, Ps. xl. 8. Mistaking =x: for 
Sa, they have here translated it Spéma- 
voy, a scythe or sickle. 

2. The roll here described was of large 
dimensions, more than ten yards in 
length, by upwards of five in breadth. 
To compose such a roll several skins had 


to be sewed together, as we find to be 
the case with the Jewish Megillahs, or 
rolls containing the Pentateuch and 
other portions of the Old Testament, 
read in the synagogue at the present 
day. One of these synagogue rolls, pre- 
served in the British Museum, contains 
the Pentateuch, written on forty brown 
African skins. In the Rabbinical divi- 
sion of the books of the Old Testament, 
the title of the five Megilloth is given 
to those of the Song of Solomon, Ruth, 
Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther ; 
but in Ps. x1. 8, the term 752: is applied 
by way of eminence to the roll or book 
of the law. The large size of the roll 
seems to have been intended to indicate 
the number of the curses which it con- 
tained. The circumstance, that the di- 


382 ZECHARIAH. 


8 breadth of it ten cubits. 


Cuap. VY. 


And he said to me, This is the curse 


which goeth forth over the face of the whole land; for every 
one that stealeth shall be cleared away on this side, according to 
it, and every one that sweareth shall be cleared away on that 


4 side, according to it. 


I bring it forth, saith Jehovah of hosts, 


and it shall enter the house of him that stealeth, and the house 
of him that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall continue 
in the midst of his house, and destroy it, and its wood, and its 


stones. 


mensions of the roll correspond to those 
of the porch of the temple, 1 Kings vi. 
3, seems rather to be accidental than in- 
tended to convey any specific instruction. 
The participle rey , flying, expresses the 
velocity with which the judgments de- 
nounced in the volume would come upon 
the wicked. 

3. nism nxt, this ts, or signifies, rep- 
resents the curse, a phrase altogether 
parallel with that used by our Lord 
when instituting the sacred supper: 
tovro tort Td cua mov; in Heb. ryz 
"ni, this is, i. e. represents my body. 
nis, curse, is to be taken as a collective, 
comprehending all the curses denounced 
against transgressors of the Divine law. 
After msx4>m supply ; nin "QED, 
‘‘from the presence of Jchovah.”  Be- 
cause 745905 4%, on this side and on that, 
is used when the writing of the law on 
both sides of the tables is spoken of, 
Exod. xxxii. 15, Abenezra, Kimchi, Ro- 
senmiiller, Hengstenberg, and some other 
interpreters, have argued in favor of the 
position, that the roll, like that of Ezek. 
ii. 9, 10, was also written in this man- 
ner; but the immediate construction of 
the pronoun with mF in both instances 
shows that it cannot be maintained, 
Reference is had to the place where the 
transgressor may be. From that place, 
whether on the right hand or on the left, 
he should be swept away by the Divine 
judgment. Nowhere should he find pro- 
tection. The curse went forth over the 
whole land. It has been properly re- 
marked, that an individual example of 
transgression is selected from each of the 


two tables of the law: asm, he who 
stealeth, standing for those who break the 
rule of duty in regard to their neighbor; 
and yauen, he who sweareth, for those 


who are guilty of a violation of such du-' 
ties‘-as have immediate reference to God, 


mp is not to be taken here in the sense 
of treating as innocent, but with the sig- 
nification of emptying, clearing, sweeping 
clean away. Comp. Is. iii. 26; Jer. xxx. 
11. It is in the Niphal conjugation, the 
form of which is the same as that of Piel. 
The ancient translators are at fault here, 
having mistaken mp2 for tp2. Thus 
the LXX. éxducndqoera; Symm. dixnv 
déon- Nor can the rendering of Ston- 
ard, *yleadeth not guilty,” be sustained. 
mica, like, or according to it, if fully 
expressed, would be a3n5 -Zs2 , accord- 
ing as it is written, referring to the curse 
or threatening inscribed -upon the roll. 


Thus Jerome, sicut ibi scriptum est. 


4, The pronominal affix in m*nwsin 
refers to mbxm in the preceding verse. 
spzd sade is an aggravation of a¥2. 
The punctuation of 735 is irregular “for 
m2>, the third feminine of the preterite 
of snd, which one of De Rossi’s MSS. 
exhibits. 4:5 not merely signifies to turn 
aside and spend the night in any place, 
but also to remain permanently. See Ps, 
xlix, 18. sms = snnb>. A like curse 
was pronounced by the Delphic oracle 


against perjury : 





eiodke TAA, 
Suuudpbas bréoer *yevenv 
G&mavta. 


kal otkoy 


Kpumvods 3 perépxerat, 


Herodot. vi. 86.. 


Cuap. V. 


ZECHARIAH. 


383 


5 Then the angel who spake with me came forth, and said to 
me, Raise thine eyes, now, and look what this is that cometh 
6 forth. AndI said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah 
that cometh forth. He said, moreover, This is their appearance 
7 in all the land. And, behold! a round piece of lead, and there 
8 was a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. And he said, 


VISION VII. 

5. wxw4, came forth, i, e. came again 
into view to explain the new vision. 

6. The ephah was one of the larger 
Jewish corn measures, containing about 
an English bushel, or seven gallons and 
ahalf. The LXX. give it simply by 7d 
petpdv. Symm, leaves it untranslated, 
oipi, which presents it pretty much in 


its Egyptian form, which was (]]JJ{{. 


Comp. the Arab. XA3 9: Some have 


supposed that it is not to be specifically 
understood of the measure so called, on 
the ground that such a measure could 
not have contained the woman mentioned 
ver. 7; but the assumption is altogether 
gratuitous, since there is no necessity for 
maintaining that the female represented 
was actually in appearance of the ordi- 
nary size. There is equally little foun- 
dation for the interpretation of the Tar- 
gum, that the use of false measures was 
intended by this item of the vision. 

2°», their eye, has been variously re- 
garded by different translators and expos- 
itors. The LXX., Arab., and Syr., have 
read Es4y, their iniquity, which many 
think much more suited to the connec- 
tion, but this reading is supported by 
only one of De Rossi’s MSS, It is clear 
from what Jerome says on the subject, 
that the text was the same in his day as 
we have it at present. The latter read- 
ing is adopted by Houbigant, Newcome, 
and others of the same school. That 
\"2 signifies appearance, or that which 
presents itself to the eye, is fully estab- 
lished by reference to Lev. xiii. 55; 
Numb. xi. 7; Ezek. i. 4, 7, x. 9; and 
this signification is appropriately appli- 
cable in the present passage. Hengsten- 


berg, taking the word in its primary 
acceptation, considers the meaning to be 
that their eye was universally set on evil; 
it was the effort of the whole people to 
fill up the measure of their sins, and 
thereby bring upon themselves a full 
measure of divine punishment. When 
it is said that the ephah (for this is the 
nominative to the latter ry, this ts), 
was their appearance, the language is 
metonymical; the container being used 
for the thing contained, 7. e. myy5n, 
wickedness, or idolatry, as further ex- 
plained, ver. 8. 

7. The => contracted for “D>, what 
is round or globular, from > P) » to go 
round, was the heaviest weight in use 
among the Hebrews, being equal to 
3000 shekels, or, according to Jahn, 125 
pounds, English troy weight. Luther 
renders it here by centner, or hundred- 
weight ; but it is obviously to be taken, 
not in its strict estimate as a measure, 
but in its etymological import, as sig- 
nifying a flat, roundish lump or cake of 
lead, yet not without some respect to its 
heaviness, in consideration of the end it 
was designed to serve— the security of 
the woman in the vessel over which it 
was placed. To express the idea of 
weight it is called 433, @ stone, in the 
following verse. nmxiz} is the feminine 
participle in Niphal. sir, does not re- 
fer to the talent or weight going before, 
but to mgs immediately following, and 
is equivalent to there was. The woman 
was placed in the ephah in order to be 
conveyed to Babylon. 

8. By mz3n in this place is meant 
idolatry, which was the most flagrant 
kind of wickedness with respect to God, 
and the fruitful parent of every other 


384 


This is wickedness. 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. V. 


And he threw her down in the midst of 


the ephah, and threw the weight of lead on the mouth of it. 
9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and, behold! two women 
came forth, and the wind was in their wings, for they had wings 
like the wings of a stork; and they bore away the ephah be- 
10 tween earth and heaven. ‘Then I said to the angel who spake 
11 with me, Whither are these conveying the ephah? And he 
said to me, To build for it a house in the land of Shinar ; for it 
shall be set up, and placed there on its own base. 


species of iniquity. To mark it more 
emphatically, the article is prefixed. 
yibun, as used both times, conveys 
the idea of a forcible action, In the 
preceding verse the woman is represented 
as already sitting in the midst of the 
ephah; the action here described may 
either be carried back to a period pre- 
ceding the vision, or it may be intended 
to indicate what was further done, in 
order to cause her to occupy a lower 
position in the vessel, so as to allow of 
the leaden cover being thrown over her. 
The latter is the more probable ‘inter- 
pretation. Jarchi is of opinion that the 
feminine suffix in 7" , her mouth, refers 
to the woman; but it can alone with 
propriety be referred to the ephah. 

9, The two females here mentioned 
are regarded by Maurer and Hengsten- 
berg as merely belonging, by way of col- 
oring, to the symbol as such, two persons 
being required to carry so large a measure 
asthe ephah. I should rather, however, 
infer that the Assyrian and Babylonian 
powers are intended, by which, as instru- 
ments, God removed idolatry in the per- 
sons of the apostate Hebrews out of the 
holy land. By their having the wind in 


Theod. and Symm. This Greek term is 
derived from épws, Jove. The large wings 
of the stork greatly accelerate its flight, 
when aided by the wind. In m:yn: is 
an elision of the letter x, the third radi- 
eal, for m2sym1, which is found in a 
great number of MSS, and some of the 
earliest printed editions. 

10. Instead of the defective orthogra- 
phy r4st4%, many MSS. and some edi- 
tions read in full, m4s-b4y0. 

11. a929 Yas, ‘the land of Shinar, is 
rendered in the LXX. yf BaBvAGvos, and 
in the Targ. ba3 ni, which is the 
proper interpretation. 4=:n is to be con- 
strued with n=, and pn*im with ress, 
including the idea of the woman, or of 
idolatry, of which she was the symbol. 
To the latter also the affix in mn25" 
belongs, eae 

In this striking hieroglyphic we are 
taught how idolatry, with all its accom- 
panying atrocities, was removed from the 
land of the Hebrews, which it had des- 
ecrated, to a country devoted to it, and 
where it was to commingle with its 
native elements, never to be re-imported 
into Canaan. How exactly has the pre- 
diction been fulfilled! From the time 


their wings is conveyed the idea of the @f the captivity to the present, a period 


celerity of their motion. maon, the 
stork, so called from the affection which 
both the parent bird and her young show 
to each other. Aq., who frequently gives 
the etymology of Hebrew words, renders 
it "Epwdios, in which he is followed by 


of more than two thousand years, the 
Hebrew people have never once lapsed 
into idolatry! The whole vision was 
intended to convince them of the great- 
ness of the evil. 


Cuap. VI. ZECHARIAH. 385 


CHAPTER VI. 


HaAvine warned the Jews against indulging in the evil practices which had occasioned their 
_ removal to Babylon, Jehovah now, in another vision, exhibits to their view the warlike 
and unsettled state of political affairs in the immediate future, during the reigns of Darius. 
and his successors, 1—8. Most commentators seem to have concurred in the opinion ex- 
pressed by Munster: ‘‘ Hc visio est valde obscura.’ The symbols are in themselves simple, 
consisting of four chariots drawn by horses of different colors, which issue from between 
two mountains of copper, and proceed in different directions with respect to the land of 
Palestine. That they betoken certain dispensations of Divine Providence, in reference 
to the nations by which the Jews were immediately surrounded, and by whose fate they 
were more or less affected, appears to be the most consistent position that can be assumed 
in interpreting them, especially as such is the application of similar symbols elsewhere in 
the prophetic records. The colors of the horses denote, as usual, the character of these 
dispensations, as either calamitous, prosperous, or mixed. Comp. chap. i. 8; Rey. vi. 
This vision, which is the last, is followed by a splendid prophecy of the Messiah in his 
co-ordinate offices of Priest and King, to typify which the symbolical action of making 
two crowns and placing them upon the head of Joshua, is ordained by Divine authority, 


9—15. 





1 Ann I raised my eyes again, and looked, and, behold! four 
chariots came forth from between two mountains, and the moun- 


2 tains were mountains of copper. 


In the first chariot were red 


3 horses; and in the second chariot black horses ; and in the third 
chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot were piebald 


1. For the idiom NwN1 AYN, see on 
ch. iv. 1. Considering that the events 
referred to are those of war, it is most 
natural to infer that war-chariots are 
here intended. By mountains of copper 
are meant solid, strong and durable 
mountains, such as those in which cop- 
per and other metals are ordinarily found. 
Comp. Jer. i. 18. Of what these moun- 
tains were designed to be the symbols, 
or whether they are introduced merely 
as an ornamental part of the vision, have 
been matters of dispute. I am strongly 
inclined to regard them as emblems of 
the Medes and Persians, and thus cor- 
responding to the two horns of the ram 
which are employed by Daniel to denote 
the same people. See chap. viii. 3, 4. 
From between these, or from the power- 
ful empire which they formed, the instru- 
ments of Divine Providence were to pro- 
ceed to execute his purposes in punishing 


the nations. That mountains are em- 
ployed in the figurative language of 
prophecy to signify kingdoms or govern- 
ments, see Is, ii. 2, xli. 15; Jer. li, 25; 
Dan. ii. 35. 

2, 3. The red horses are symbolical of 
war and bloodshed ; the d/ack, of general 
calamity and distress; the white, of vic- 
tory and prosperity; and the piebald 
grays, of a dispensation, mixed in its 
character, partly prosperous, and partly 
adverse, The last word, Drwy, would 
seem most naturally to be referrible to 
the root V7 , to be strong, active, etc. ; 
and this mode of solution would at once 
be satisfactory were there no qualifying 
circumstances in the immediate context 
to require another interpretation. But 
as all the other terms here employed in 
describing the horses are expressive of 
colors, we should expect something of the 
same character to be intended by the 


49 


386 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuar. VI. 


4 gray horses. I then proceeded and said to the angel who spake 
5 with me, What are these, my lord? And the angel answered 
and said to me, These are the four spirits of heaven, coming 
6 forth from presenting themselves before the Lord of the whole 
earth. That and the black horses in it are going forth into the 
north country ; and the white go forth to the west of them; and 


word in question. I, therefore, prefer 
adopting a derivation from the Arab. 
yan 9? leviter splenduit, and regard it 
as qualifying E°743 , immediately pre- 
ceding. Thus, the Targ. 7722p , ash- 
colored gray ; so that the most appropri- 
ate rendering of the two terms will be 
spotted, or piebald grays. 

5. Though the phrase nhmyn 9548 
tintin is that employed chap. ii. 10, 
(Heb.) to denote the four quarters of the 
horizon, yet, that it cannot have this 
meaning in the present instance, is evi- 
dent from its being added that the nny 
are such as had taken their station, or 
presented themselves before the Lord, in 
order to receive their commissions for the 
execution of his will. In our common 
version, therefore, the words are properly 
rendered as to the meaning, spirits of 
the heavens ; or, as we now commonly 
say, celestial spirits, thereby meaning 
angels. These are represented, as in 
Job i. 6; ii. 1, as employed by God to 
carry into effect his high behests, which 
they receive in his immediate presence, 
and then proceed to the different quarters 
of the globe in which the special opera- 
tions of Divine Providence are to be car- 
ried forward. 

6. By }\Bx yrs, the north country, 
we are to understand, as usual, the land 
of Babylon. Comp. Jer. iii, 18, vi. 22, 
x. 22, xlvi. 10; Zech. ii, 10. Though 
that empire had been subdued by Cyrus, 
yet the Babylonians revolted in the be- 
ginning of the fifth year of Darius, on 
which that monarch besieged them with 
all his forces; and, after much devasta- 
tion, completely depopulated it, and re- 
duced it to solitude. To set forth sym- 
bolically this fearful event, black-colored 


horses are represented as conveying into 
the country the executioner of the Divine 
indignation upon that devoted people. 
It is remarkable that the red-colored 
horses, which had been introduced into 
the vision, ver. 2, are entirely passed 
over. The reason may, perhaps, be, that, 
disastrous as was the final destruction of 
Babylon, it was unaccompanied with 
anything like the quantity of bloodshed 
which characterized the battles of con- 
flicting armies in the open field, though 
at the commencement there was every 
appearance of much blood being shed. 
Notwithstanding, therefore, the chariot 
with the red horses appeared along with 
the others, it seems to be intimated, by 
no further notice having been taken of 
it, that it was not employed. The «white 
horses, denoting victory and prosperity, 
point out the successes of Darius in dif- 
ferent parts of Greece, which, though 
checked by the battle of Marathon, con- 
tributed to the strengthening of his power 
in that quarter. The phrase, oy) nNeby, 
literally means behind them, but geo- 
graphically, to the west of them. That 
it is to be so taken here, the use of ts, 
to, corresponding with the use of the 
same preposition after the verb, both be- 
fore and after in the verse, sufficiently 
shows. The dappled horses were sym- 
bolical of the varied condition of the 
Persian affairs, which followed the bat- 
tle of Marathon, especially the changes 
which took place on the death of Darius, 
and the expedition of Xerxes for the re- 
duction of Egypt. This last circumstance 
is particularly pointed at in the reference, 
wom yrs, the country of the South. 
That by yarn, Teman, we are not here 
to understand the city or region so called 
on the east of Idumea, but a land to the 





, 


Cuap. VI. 


7 the piebald go forth to the south country. 


ZECHARIAH. 


387 


And the grays went 


forth, and asked to go to walk to and fro through the land ; and 
he said, Go, walk to and fro through the land ; and they walked 


to and fro through the land. 


§ Then he summoned me and said to me, See, those that went 
to the north country have appeased my anger in the north 


country. 


9 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to me, saying: 
10 Take from the captivity, from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from 


south of Palestine, is obvious from the 
article being prefixed, and from a com- 
parison of the use of the term in such 
passages as the following, Job ix. 9; Is. 
xliii. 6. It is synonymous with 4-7", 
on the right hand, which geographically 
means the South, and here specifically 
signifies Egypt, to express which Daniel 
uses the word 233, chap. xi. 40. 

7. vsn, the land here referred to, but 
not described by any qualifying epithet, 
must be understood of the country of 
Palestine, the peculiar features of the 
dispensation of Providence with respect 
to which are marked by two circumstan- 
ces: the gray color of the horses, which 
indicated the mixed state of the Jewish 
affairs till the time of Artaxerxes Mne- 
mon; and the form of the verb 737, ¢o 
go or walk, which is in Hithpael, and 
signifies to go about, or to walk up and 
down, 'They were not to be molested by 
the hostile incursion of foreign armies, 
but neither were they to be free from 
annoyances. Accordingly, we find them 
involved in troubles by Sanballat, and 
other chiefs of the Samaritans; and, as 
the Persian army marched through Pal- 
estine to attack the Egyptians in the 
reign of Darius Nothus, the inhabitants 
must have been exposed to numerous 
inconveniences, which they could not but 
feel the more severely, owing to their 
having only just begun to take possession 
of their patrimonial inheritances. On 
the other hand, the appointment of Ne- 
hemiah to be governor of Judea, and 
other favors conferred by the Persian 
monarch, were calculated to mitigate 


their distress, and inspire them with the 
hope of a complete and happy restora- 
tion to the enjoyment of their ancient 
privileges. These dappled horses supply 
the place of the red, specified ver. 2, but 
are omitted in the explanation, ver. 6, so 
that the number of chariots is still four. 

8. The nominative to pss. must 
either be Jehovah, or the Angel of Jeho- 
vah, understood as the pronominal affix 
in "nin, ‘my anger,” shows. That 
among other significations h1" has that 
of anger, see Jud. viii. 3; Eccles. x. 4; 
Is. xxxiii. 11. The phrase, Rin horn, 
to cause anger to rest, is equivalent to 
mar moan, Ezek. v. 13, xvi. 42, xxiv. 
13; and means to satisfy, pacify. The 
final judgment having been inflicted 
upon Babylon, the Divine displeasure 
should no more be manifested in that 
direction. 

The tendency of the whole vision was 
to assure the Jews of the care and pro- 
tection of their covenant God, and thus 
lead them to exercise confidence in him, 
while prosecuting the restoration of the 
temple and their former institutions. 

9—11. Here commences a separate 
prophecy, calculated, like the preceding 
vision, to stimulate the Jews in their 
work. That what was commanded was 
actually performed by the prophet, and 
that it was not done in vision, seems the 
only tenable construction that can be 
put upon it. The infinitive nip$, at 
the beginning of the 9th verse, is to be 
taken in connection with the finite form 
of the same verb at that of the 11th, 
both having ar Fee for their object. 


388 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. VI. 


Jedaiah, who are come from Babylon, and enter thou on that 
11 day, yea, enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah; yea, 

take silver and gold, and make crowns, and place them upon the 

head of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest ; and speak 
12 to him, saying, Thus speaketh J shawls of hosts, saying: 


The preposition which is prefixed to 
the following nouns is not to be taken 
partitively, as if some of the captivity, 
and one of each of the families, the heads 
of which are supposed to be here speci- 
fied, were meant, but is used in its pri- 
mary and most common signification. 
The persons named appear to have form- 
ed a deputation from the 7543, captives 
still remaining in Babylon, who had sent 
them with contributions in gold and sil- 
ver to help forward the building of the 
temple at Jerusalem. These deputies 
had deposited their gifts in the house of 
Josiah, to which the prophet is com- 
manded to repair and take what was 
necessary for making the two crowns 
which were to be placed on the head of 
the high priest. It is not improbable 
that Josiah was public treasurer at the 
time. The language of Zechariah is 
here more heavy and verbose than usual, 
which has occasioned some difficulty to 
interpreters. Instead of }22%2 183 “ey, 
two of Kennicott’s MSS., the Ixk 
Syr., and Targ., read x2 in the singular, 
and restrict the declaration to Josiah, 
mentioned immediately before; but there 
can be little doubt that this various read- 
ing is merely an emendation of some 
copyist, who took Josiah, and not the 
three persons spoken of at the beginning 
of the verse, to be the subject of the pred- 
icate. To remove the ambiguity, our 
translators have properly connected the 


words immediately with the names of. 


the persons to whom they belong. Heng- 
stenberg contends that only one crown 
is intended, and that the plural form 
mh-v 2, is to be referred to several small 
crowns or diadems of which it consisted. 
With many other interpreters, he ad- 
duces in support of the opinion the d:a- 
dhuata ToAAa, Many crowns, which are 


described as being upon the head of the 
Saviour, Rev. xix. 12; but the reference 
there is purely to the crown of a con- 
queror, composed of many diadems, 
which Christ is represented as wearing, 
as a symbol of the numerous victories 
he had won over the enemies of his 
church. It appears, however, essential 
to the thing signified, namely, the priest- 
ly and regal offices, that they should 
have been distinct crowns, in which case 
either the one may have been placed upon 
the head of Joshua after the other, or 
they may have been joined together so 
as to form a double crown, and so placed 
upon his head at once. What favors the 
latter view of the subject is the circum- 
stance, that the plural n= Dy is construed 
with mtn, the singular of ‘the substan- 
tive verb, ver. 14, Maurer not inaptly 
illustrates this by a reference to the triple 
crown or the tiara of the popes, by which 
they arrogate to themselves a higher de- 
gree of dignity than that of Him whose 
servants they profess to be. 

12. The symbolical action performed 
upon Joshua as representative of the 
Messiah is here followed by an explan- 
atory prophecy, in which his person, 
offices, and work are distinctly set forth. 
For the signification of prez, BRANCH, see 
on Is, iv. 2, That the Messiah is meant 
must be evident to all who will impar- 
tially compare Is, iv. 2; Jer. xxiii. 5, 
xxxiii. 15 ; Zech. iii. 8. Thus the Targ. 
expounds: s*ny mod Nw NAIA NN 
shares, Behold the Man, Mursstar is 
his name; who is to be revealed.” The 
same view is taken by Moses Hadarsan : 

“oo a8 ab PR Cow tops ees bean 
ade TMM. Ww. rit wen, “The 
Redeemer whom I will raise up from 
you shall have no father, as it is said ; 
Behold the man, whose name is Zemach, 











Cuapr. VI. 


ZECHARIAH. 389 


Behold the man whose name is THE BRANCH, 
For he shall grow up out of his place, 
And he shall build the temple of Jehovah. 

13 Even he shall build the temple of Jehovah, 


And he shall bear the glory; 


and he shall grow up from his place.” 
The Rabbins Jarchi, Abenezra, and Kim- 
chi, and after them, Bauer and Ewald, 
suppose Zerubbabel to be intended. The 
last-mentioned writer, after the example 
of Eichhorn and Theiner, conjectures 
that, instead of yvin> ona, on the 
head of Joshua, the text has originally 
read, 234n7 GX39 $2297 SkI3, on the 
head of Zerubbabel, and on the head of 
Joshua. But who does not perceive that 
this conjecture is to be traced to the mere 
love of hypothesis. Maurer scruples not 
to regard it as doing violence to the pas- 
sage. The application of the words to 
Zerubbabel is decidedly rejected by Abar- 
banel, notwithstanding his bigoted hos- 
tility to the Messianic interpretations. 
The words of the text can apply to no 
one who was not a priest; for it is ex- 
pressly declared that such was to be the 
official character of him who is the sub- 
ject of discourse. And that neither 
Joshua nor any of his descendants could 
be meant, is evident from the fact, that 
they could not exercise the regal power, 
none of them being entitled to occupy 
the throne. Simon Maccabzeus, to whom 
Michaelis applies the prophecy, never 
filled the kingly office; he was merely 
commander of the army, and civil gov- 
ernor, subject to the kings of Syria. In- 
stead of building the temple, as is here 
predicted of the Branch, he erected a 
splendid palace for himself on the moun- 
tain on which the temple stood. Nor 
did the work of repairing it, after it had 
been pillaged by Antiochus Epiphanes, 
devolve upon him, but upon his brother 
Judas. Besides, the declaration that the 
Branch should be invested with the honor 
or glory connected with the building of 
the temple, would be at variance with 
the uniform ascription of the glory of 


all great undertakings to Jehovah and 
not to man, wherever in Scripture such 
works are represented as carried on under 
the special direction of the Most High. 
In the phrase, pax Ana, and he 
shall sprout forth from his place, while 
there is a direct reference to the name 
max, here given to the Messiah, there 
seems to be no very indistinct allusion to 
the miraculous conception. wan, his 
place, the place which was peculiar to 
him. The interpretation, that “ under 
him there shall be growth,” which is 
adopted by Cyril, Jerome, Luther, Calo- 
vius, Hitzig, Maurer, and Ewald, apply- 
ing it to the church, the body of believers, 
or the affairs of Messiah’s kingdom, is to 
be rejected on the ground of its not being 
warranted by Scripture usage. By Luh 
mins, the temple of Jehovah, which the 
Messiah was to build, the material tem- 
ple then in the course of erection cannot 
be understood, for that was to be carried 
on and completed by Zerubbabel, chap. 
iv. 9. But, as we have just seen, Zerub- 
babel and the Branch are not identical. 
We are, therefore, compelled to interpret 
the phrase in application to the New 
Testament church, which is frequently 
spoken of as a temple, 1 Cor. iii. 17; 2 
Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph. ii. 22; 2 Thess. ii. 4 ; 
and respecting which the Messiah him- 
self declares, ‘* Upon this rock will I build 
my church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it.”” Matt. xvi. 18. 
13. The repetition bo-hery p27 8471 
min? is not, as has been conjectured, to 
- ascribed to an error of some tran- 
scriber, and on the authority of the 
LXX., Arab., and Syr., to be expunged 
as superfluous, but is singularly in its 
place, as giving a high degrce of em- 
phasis to the statement made respecting 
the personal work of the Messiah. The 


390 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. VI. 


And he shall sit and rule upon his throne, 
And shall be a priest upon his throne, 
And the counsel of peace shall be between them both. 
14 And the crowns shall be for Helem and for Tobijah, and for 
Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in 


erection of the spiritual temple was to be 
effected exclusively through his media- 
tion. With the declaration, that he 
should “bear the glory,” compare Ps. 
xxi. 5, cii. 16; Is. lii. 18; Heb. ii. 9. 
The declaration has reference to the 
crowns, the insignia of glory and ma- 
jesty, which were to be placed on the 
head of Joshua. In the following clauses 
of the verse the union of the regal and 
sacerdotal offices in the person of the 
Messiah is distinctly set forth, thus ex- 
hibiting the peculiar feature of the Mel- 
chizedekian priesthood, Gen? xiv. 18 ; 

Ps. cx. 4; Heb. v. 6, 10, vi. 20, vii. 
While our Lord continues to officiate in 
the heavenly temple as the Great High 
Priest of his people, ever living to make 
intercession for them, he exercises his 
mediatorial rule over the world and the 
church — that over the former being 
rendered subservient to the administra- 
tion of that which he exercises over the 
latter. Vitringa, Reuss, Dr. McCaul, 
and others, refer the pronominal affix in 
4no> , “ Ais throne,” to Jehovah, or the 
Deity absolutely considered, but, in my 
opinion, without sufficient ground. The 
natural construction requires the person 
who is prominently before the reader to 
be the object of reference. The render- 
ing of Newcome, Hitzig, and Ewald, 
‘and a priest shall be upon his throne,” 
is forced and unwarranted; the Vau 
clearly connecting the substantive verb 
with the preceding verbs xv» and m339, 
the nominative to which is xin, the 
Branch, or Messiah. The nominatives 
to tr*:3, “them both,” are neither Je- 
hovah and the Messiah, as maintained 
both by ancient and by many modern 
interpreters, among others, Cocceius, De 
Dieu, Vitringa, Bengel, Reuss, Dr. Mc 
Caul, and Dr. J. Pye Smith; nor Jews 


and Gentiles, as Dr. Stonard strangely 
interprets; but the manD» priesthood, and 
the box , regal dignity, which had just 
been mentioned as unitedly exercised by 
the Branch. ‘Thus Jerome, Marckius, 
Drusius, Lowth, Dathe, Rosenmiiller, 
Hengstenberg, and others. The reason 
assigned by Dathe forms an insurmount- 
able objection to the first opinion : « Quo- 
niam enim Deus in toto hoc loco loqui- 
tur, affixum tertiz persone in om 
non potest ad Jovam referre.” The same 
objection lies against the reference of the 
affix in yxo> to Jehovah. By ns 
city , the counsel or purpose of peace, is 
to be understood the glorious scheme of 
reconciliation between God and man, 
effected by the joint exercise of the sacer- 
dotal and regal offices of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Comp. Is. ix. 6; Micah v. 5; 
Eph. ii. 14—17; Col. i. 20, 21; Heb. 
xiii, 20. 

14, Helem is, in all probability, the 
same as Heldia, ver. 10, and Hen another 
name of Josiah, there also mentioned. 
There seems no ground for rendering 
4; , favor, and interpreting it of the hos- 
pitality shown to the deputies by Josiah; 
the construction adopted by Hengsten- 
berg, Maurer and Ewald. The words 
bond minn mavgn, the crowns shall 
be to Helem, etc., do not mean that they 
were to belong to the persons specified, 
but that they were to be for a memorial 
to them of the symbolical act that had 
just taken place, and were for this pur- 
pose to be deposited in the temple, where 
it is possible they remained till the Mes- 
siah, as high priest and king of his peo- 
ple, had taken possession of his mediato- 
rial throne, when temple, and crowns, 
and the whole Jewish polity, were taken 
or destroyed by the Romans. 





=“ CO 


Cuap. VII. 


ZECHARIAH. 391 


15 the temple of Jehovah. And those who are far off shall come 
and build in the temple of Jehovah; and ye shall know that 
Jehovah of hosts hath sent me to you. And it shall come to 
pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of Jehovah your 


God * * * * 


15. This verse contains a striking 
prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, 
together with a solemn warning to the 
Jews, in which, the sentence being left 


unfinished, their rejection in consequence 
of unbelief is forcibly implied. It is a 
striking instance of émogwmnot. 





CHAPTER VII. 


Tus and the following chapter are occupied with replies to questions which had been pro- 
posed for solution, relative to certain fasts which the Jews had observed, but which they 
supposed might no longer be binding after the restoration of their prosperity, 1—3. From 
this circumstance Zechariah is commanded to take occasion to reprove them for their 
selfish observance of the days appointed for fasting, 4—7; to enforce attention to the 
weightier matters of the law. 8—10; and to warn them, by placing before them the rebel- 
lious conduct of their fathers, and the punishment with which it had been visited, 11—14. 





1  Awnp it came to pass in the fourth year of Darius the king, 
that the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah on 
2 the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev; when 
Bethel sent Sherezer, Regem-melech and his men, to conciliate 


1. The occurrence here described took 
place two years later than those described 
in the preceding chapters. ibo>, Chis- 
lev, the name of the ninth month of the 
Hebrews, which corresponds to part of 
November and part of December. Some 
think it is of Persic origin, but the idea 
of torpor, rigidity, stiffness, which is con- 
veyed by the Heb. tes, is sufficient to 
justify its being referred to this root; 
such being the character assumed by na- 
ture in the course of this month. The 
2 prefixed may be regarded as the Beth 
essentia. 

2. The words ty—n°3 mov-1 have 
occasioned considerable perplexity to in- 
terpreters. Some of the earlier Jews 


took Bethel to be the name of a person. 
Lightfoot supposes that it means the con- 
gregation of the Jews who had remained 
in Babylon. To the same effect Mich- 
aelis, “* The congregation of God at Sha- 
rezer,” though he acknowledges he had 
no idea of the geographical position of 
the city so called. Hengstenberg and 
Maurer think the people of the Jews are 
intended. The Vulg., Grotius, Dathe, 
Newcome, De Wette, and Arnheim, sup- 


_ply ts before the word, and render, ‘to 


the house of God.” The LXX., Syr., 
Targ., Drusius, Blayney, Hitzig, and 
Ewald, regard it as the name of the city 
so called, in the tribe of Benjamin ; only 
the ancient versions just specified repre- 


392 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. VII. 


3 the regard of Jehovah, speaking to the priests which were in 
the inte of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying: 
Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done 


these many years ? 


4 Then the word of Jehovah of hosts was communicated to me, 
saying : Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, 
5 saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the 
seventh month, even those seventy years, was it at all to me that 
6 ye fasted? And when ye ate, and when ye drank, was it not 


sent it as the place to which the deputa- 
tion was sent. Against the interpreta- 
tion which explains it of the temple, 
there lies the insuperable objection, that 
— sacred edifice is uniformly called 

m non, the house of Jehovah, — never 
na the house of God; and that it 
should have been so designated after the 
recovery of the Jews from idolatry is 
altogether incredible, considering the in- 
famy attached to the city so named, I 
entirely concur in the last opinion, which 
refers it to the city of Bethel, which is 
used by metonymy for its inhabitants. 
The word occupies its proper place as the 
nominative to the verb, which cannot 
here be taken impersonally, as such con- 
struction would exclude all reference to 
those who sent the deputation, a cir- 
cumstance not to be reconciled with the 
express specification of the names of the 
persons who composed it. n4dnb, lit. 
to stroke the face, to ingratiate onself with 
another, conciliate his regard. 

3. The city having been introduced in 
the preceding verse as sending the depu- 
tation, speaks here in the first person sin- 
gular. Comp. 1 Sam. x. 10; 2 Sam. 
xx. 19; Zech. viii. 21, The question 
related to the continuance of the fast in 
the fifth month, which had been insti- 
tuted to commemorate the destruction of 
Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. ‘As the 
city was now being restored, it was pre- 
sumed there would no longer be any 
necessity for keeping up the humiliating 
memorial. =>.xn is not simply, Shall 
I fast? but, Shall I continue to Fast ? 
The following words indicate, that it 


was felt to be a tedious and irksome per- 
formance of duty. The persons speaking 
were thoroughly weary of it. “jan, the 
infinitive in Niphal of -13, ¢o separate, 
consecrate, vow; in Niphal, to abstain 
from food, and the ordinary employments 
of life. 

5, 6. Though the question had been 
proposed by the leading men of a single 
city only, yet the burden was generally 
felt, on which account the prophet is 
directed to address the Divine reply to 
all the inhabitants of the land, the priests 
not excepted, who appear to have been 
desirous of getting rid of the fast as well 
as others. Their fasts had not been per- 
formed from a purely religious motive, 
but were relf-righteous and hypocritical. 
While they observed them, they neg- 
lected the weightier matters of the law. 
At 74e is an ellipsis of the finite form 
of the same verb. In “2x "3m DhsG 
there is a double idiom, which tenders it 
peculiarly emphatic. Not only is the 
finite form used after the infinitive of the 
same verb; but the nominative of the 
personal pronoun is employed after the 
usual verbal suffix, Comp. Gen. xxvii. 
34. "28 03 "2592. The fast in the 
seventh month was in commemoration 
of the murder of Gedaliah, and those 
who were with him at Mispah. See 
2 Kings xxv. 25, 26; Jer. xli. 1—3. 
Neither in fasting nor in feasting had 
the Jews any regard to Jehovah, but did 
all from self-interested motives. The 
feasting referred to is that which took 
place on the festival days, which were 
always days of rejoicing. 


Cuap. VII. 


7 ye that ate, and ye that drank ? 


ZECHARIAH. 


393 


Are not these the words which 


Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem 
was inhabited and at peace, and her cities around her, when 
both the south and the plain were inhabited ? 

8 And the word of Jehovah was communicated to Zechariah, 


saying, 


9 Thus spake Jehovah of hosts, saying: 


Execute true judgment, 


And show kindness and mercy one to another ; 


10 
_ The stranger and the poor ; 


Oppress not the widow and the orphan, 


And think not in your heart of the injury 
Which one hath done to another. 


11 But they refused to attend, 


And turned their back rebelliously ; 


They made their ears heavy, 
That they might not hear. 
12 


They made their heart an adamant, 


That they might not hear the law, 
Nor the words which Jehovah sent by his Spirit 


Through the former prophets ; 


And there was great wrath from Jehovah of hosts. 


13 And it came to pass, 


When he called and they would not hear, 
So they called, and I would not hear, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts, 


7. The former prophets had taught the 
worthlessness of attention to meats and 
drinks while God was forgotten, and the 
weightier matters of his law neglected. 
If the Jews had listened to, and com- 
plied with, the messages of the prophets, 
none of the evils which had come upon 
them would have been inflicted. For 
“the former prophets,” see on chap. 
i. 4. By the “south and the plain,” are 
meant the southern and western parts of 
Judah, 

9. -%x is here to be taken in the 
strictly past tense, as the beginning of 
the 11th verse clearly shows. 

10. Though y-s intervenes between 
mz and i*ms they are to be regarded 
as in construction. Comp. Is, xix. 8; 


50 


Hos. xiv. 3. No one was to harbor any 
feelings of resentment against another 
for any injury he might have done him. 
11. §n> 7n2, to give the shoulder, is 
equivalent to turning the back upon any 
one. The cause of such action is traced 
to a refractory, rebellious, and intractable 
disposition. The % prefixed in y4sz% 
is privative. 
12. -"2% signifies both a thorn and a 


diamond, from the Arab. , to pierce, 


Here the idea of hardness is that con- 
veyed by its use, In e-s*29n 723 4343 
the double agency by which the Divine 
will was communicated is recognized — 
that of the inspiring Spirit, and that of 
the instruments inspired. 


394 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuar. VIII. 


14 But tossed them among all the nations which they knew not, 
And the land was desolate after them ; : 
No one passed through or returned, 
For they had made the land of delight desolate. 


14. cago is an anomalous form, 
after the Arameean manner, according 
to which Zére is placed where there 
would otherwise be a movable Sheva. 
Regularly, it would be pyzoy. It is 
of the Piel conjugation. mm Y7N> 


the land of delight, Canaan. Comp. Jer. 
iii, 19. Maurer proposes to take 3 xa" wa 
impersonally. Others more properly con- 
sider the Jews to be the nominative, who 
by their crimes, had. brought judgments 
upon the land, 





CHAPTER. °¥ 2a, 


Tus chapter is a continuation of the subject introduced and treated of in the preceding. 
Having shown the awful consequences of disregarding the Divine will, which had been 
clearly announced by the prophets, God promises the renewal of his favor towards those 
who had returned from the captivity. Restored to purity, 3, Jerusalem should enjoy 
security and prosperity to a degree far exceeding the conceptions of those whom the 
prophet addressed, 4—6. Those who were still in heathen countries should be brought 
back, and share in the general prosperity, 7—17. The chapter closes with a direct answer 
to the question relating to the fasts, and a prediction of the great number of proselytes 
that should be made to the true religion by the display of the Divine goodness towards 


the Jews, 18—23. 





1, Awp the word of Jehovah was communicated to me, saying: 


2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


I have been zealous for Zion with great zeal, 
Yea, with great indignation have I been zealous for her. 
3 Thus saith Jehovah, I am returned to Zion, 
And will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem ; 
And Jerusalem shall be called, The city of truth, 
And the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, The holy mountain. 
4 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


1. Before »jax> the word =>x , to me, 
is found in thirty-three Heb. MSS. ; it 
has been in ten more originally, and is 
now in three by correction; it is the 
reading of the Soncin., Brixian, and 
Complutensian editions, and is supported 
by the Syr. and Targ. 


2. Comp. i. 14, 15. 

3. Comp. Is. i,. 26, and the remarks 
there made on the idiomatic use of xnj , 
to call, 

4, 5. These verses beautifully depict 
the security and happiness of the inhab- 
itants of Jerusalem. Longevity and a 


Cuapr. VIII. 


ZECHARIAH. 


395 


Aged men and aged women shall yet be sitting in the streets 


of Jerusalem, 


Each man with his staff in his hand for very age; 
5 And the streets of the city shall be filled 
With boys and girls, playing in the streets of it. 
6 ‘Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
Though it should be wonderful 
In the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, 
Should it also be wonderful in my eyes? 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Behold, I will deliver my people 


From the land of the rising, 


And from the land of the setting of the sun, 
8 And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of 


Jerusalem, 


And they shall become my people, 


And I will become their God, 
In truth and in righteousness. 


9 ‘Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


numerous offspring were specially prom- 
ised under the old dispensation, but uni- 
formly in connection with obedience to 
the law. Deut. iv. 40, v. 16, 33, vi. 2, 
xxxiii, 6,°24; Is. Ixv. 20. The idea 
conveyed by £>7 myo in such connection 
is exquisite, What ‘can be more grati- 
fying to the uncorrupted simplicity of 
human feelings, than to witness a num- 
ber of young children enjoying their 
innocent gambols? For a contrary state 
of things, see Jer. vi. 11, ix, 21. 

6. xb8, though like its cognate nts, 
is not used in Kal, yet, from its significa- 
tions in Niphal, Piel, Hiphal, and Hith- 
pael, it cannot be doubted that it must 
have conveyed the idea of separation, dis- 
tinction, difficulty ; hence in Niphal, it 
signifies to be distinguished, to stand out 
prominently, from common events, to be 
impossible to human power, to be mirac- 
ulous, r4sb52, the participial noun, is 
often used for miraculous occurrences. 
tn n.3, in those days, i. e. at the 
time when I fulfil my promise. To jus- 
tify the rendering of our common version, 


“in these days,” the Hebrew should have 
been m2x5 77023. See ver. 9. 

7. The east and west are here put as 
parts for the whole. The meaning is, I 
will deliver my people from every region 
whither they have been scattered. "Were 
there any reason to believe that the 
prophecy has respect to a restoration of 
the Jews yet future, there would be a 
singular propriety in the use of xin, 
Sntn, the setting of the sun, the Jews 
being now, for the most part, found in 
countries to the west of Jerusalem ; but 
there is every reason to conclude that it 
has an exclusive reference to what was 
to take place soon after it was delivered. 
Vast numbers were carried away captive 
after the time of Alexander. Not fewer 
than 100,000 were carried by Ptolemy 
to Egypt, and were settled in Alexan- 
dria and Cyrene. 

The words MPD) Mgs3 belong to 
both the members of the sentence, and 
express the reality and sincerity of the 
relation on both sides, 

9. 03°32) MBPIAA, let your hands be 


396 


Let your hands be strong, 
Ye that hear in these days 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. VIII. 


These words from the mouth of the prophets, 

Which were spoken on the day when the foundation was laid 
Of the house of Jehovah of hosts, 

The temple, in order to its being built 


10 For before those days 


There was no hire for man, 


Neither was there any hire for beast; 

And to him that went out or came in 
There was no peace, because of the enemy: 
Yea, I sent all men each against another. 


11 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
12 
The vine shall yield her fruit, 


But now I will not be as in the former days 
To the residue of this people, 


For the seed shall be prosperous, 


And the earth shall yield her produce, 
And the heavens shall yield their dew, 
And I will cause the residue of this people 


To possess all these things. 


13 And it shall come to pass, 


As ye have been a curse among the nations, 
O house of Judah, and house of Israel, 


strong, a figurative mode of expression, 
denoting, courage, resolution, effort. Jud. 
vii. 11; 2 Sam. xvi. 21. The prophets 
here referred to were Haggai and Zech- 
ariah. See Ezra v. 1, 2. The words 
which the people heard were those of 
consolation and encouragement. Haggai 
ii, 18,19. After -z3 subaud. sna7. 
10. Such was the danger to which the 
Jews were exposed before the actual 
commencement of building the temple, 
that all intercourse between the city and 
the country was interrupted. The Sa- 
maritans pressed sore upon them, and 
annoyed them in every possible way. 
See Ezra iv. 1—5. By x is not meant 
affliction, SAtus, tribulatio, as the Eng., 
LXX., and Vulg.; but the enemy, or as 
we have it, yys2224 Han Ts , the ene- 
mies of Judah and Benjamin, Ezra iv. 1. 


In the last clause of the verse reference 
is had to the intestine broils and conten- 
tions which prevailed. 

11, 12. sms. stands forcibly in con- 
trast with seb at the beginning of the 
preceding verse. The providence of God 
brought about a complete change in the 
circumstances of the Jews who had re- 
turned. As they obeyed his voice and 
prosecuted his work, he gave them out- 
ward tranquillity, and prospered their 
agricultural pursuits. After phbsn 241, 
the seed of prosperity, i. e. healthy, pros- 
perous seed, such as would not fail, sup- 
ply men+, there shall be. Their fields 
should not be trodden down by the ene- 
my, nor suffer from drought, mildew, 
locusts, and other calamities. 

18. By the Jews being a curse and a 
blessing, is not meant that they were the 





Cuap. VIII. 


ZECHARIAH. 


397 


So I will deliver you, and ye shall be a blessing: 
Fear not, let your hands be strong. 


14 


For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
As I purposed to afflict you, 


When your fathers provoked me to wrath, 
Saith Jehovah of hosts, and I repented not ; 


15 - 


So again I have purposed, in these days, 


To do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah: 


Fear ye not. 
16 


These are the things which ye shall do: 
Speak truth one to another ; 


Execute true and sound judgment in your gates, 


17 


And think not in your hearts of the injury 


Which one hath done to another ; 


And love not the false oath ; 


For all these are things that I hate, 


Saith Jehovah. 
18 


And the word of Jehovah of hosts was communicated to me, 


19 saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The fast of the fourth 
month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, 
and the fast of the tenth, shall become joy and gladness to the 


instruments of communicating either evil 
or good to the nations, but that they 
themselves experienced either the one 
or the other. They were subjects of the 
curse and the blessing. ‘The house of 
Israel,” or the ten tribes, as distinguished 
from “the house of Judah,” shared in 
the happy fulfilment. of the prophecy. 
It follows, that they also returned to 
Palestine, 587 77022, in the very days 
to which it refers. All attempts to dis- 
cover them at more recent periods have 
proved utterly fruitless; and the idea 
that they must still exist somewhere in 
the world, and are still to be restored in 
their tribal state, has arisen from a mis- 
construction of those prophecies which 
refer to the return from Babylon. 

14, 15. An amplification of what had 
been stated in the preceding verse. 

16, 17. These verses contain a virtual 
and instructive reply to the question rel- 
ative to the celebration of the fast, chap. 
vii. 3. It was not in such merely exter- 


nal, ritual, or ceremonial observances that 
Jehovah delighted, but in the love and 
practice of moral rectitude. The ‘ gate”’ 
was, and still is, the forum in the East. 
pits wes means sound, wholesome 
judgment. yxy, in ver. 17, is wanting 
in three MSS., originally in two more, 
and now by correction in one; in the 
LXX. Syr. and Arab. . 

19. Now follows a formal reply to 
the question just referred to. The fast 
of the fourth month was on account of 
the taking of Jerusalem, Jer. xxxix. 2, 
lii. 5—7; that of the tenth was in com- 
memoration of the commencement of 
the siege, Jer. lii. 4. _ For the other two 
fasts, see on chap. vii. 3 and 5. The 
Jews are distinctly informed that these 
fasts should be turned into festivals of 
joy. The 1 in mgxn is adversative, 
having the force of — but in order that 
ye may enjoy the predicted and promised 
blessing, see that ye be sincere before me, 
and live in harmony among yourselves. 


398 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. VIII. 


house of Judah, even cheerful festivals ; but love ye truth and 
20 peace. Thus saith J ehovah of hosts: 


21 


There shall yet come people, 


And the inhabitants of many cities, 

And the inhabitants of one shall go to another, saying, 
Let us go speedily to conciliate the regard of Jehovah, 
And to seek Jehovah of hosts: 


I will go, even I also. 


22 Yea, many people and mighty nations shall come 
To seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem, 
And to conciliate the regard of Jehovah. 


23 
In those days ten men, 
Out of all the nations, 


Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 


Shall take hold, shall even take hold 


20. The prophecy concludes with the 
announcement that, in consequence of 
the distinguished favor shown to the 
Jewish people after their restoration to 
their own land, multitudes of Gentiles 
should be induced to embrace the worship 
of Jehovah. Just before the appearance 
of Christ, the heathen began powerfully 
to feel the emptiness of their false relig- 
ions, and the unsatisfactoriness of their 
systems of philosophy, and many of them, 
who were trought into contact with the 
people of God, found in their religion, 
with all its imperfections, a satisfaction 
which they had sought in vain from any 
other quarter. It is evident, from various 
parts of the Acts of the Apostles, that 
proselytes were numerous in their day. 
Between = and tx, supply mcm. 
Two MSS., the LXX. and Arab. read 
p.a1, many, ‘after bey, which in all 
probability existed originally in the text. 

21. The second mrs is equivalent to 
mins. Comp. Exod. xvii. 12, xviii. 4. 

23. sax is redundant. Ten is put as 
around number, or a definite for an in- 
definite, but indicating many rather than 
few. Comp. Gen. xxxi. 7; Mic. v. 5. 
Dyan miswd S5%, of all the languages 
of the nations, means, of all the nations 
speaking different languages. Comp. 


rhovbdna canbe , all the nations and 
the languages, Is, Ixvi. 18. See also 
Gen. x. 5, 20; Dan. iii. 7; Rev. v. 9, 
vii, 9, xiii. 7. To take hold of the skirt, 
is not intended to convey the idea of 
entreaty, or the gesture of application 
for assistance, but is significant of a feel- 
ing of inferiority, and a desire to enjoy 
the happy privileges possessed by another. 
The Gentile nations would be anxious to 
participate in the blessings of the theoc- 
racy. The repetition of the verb pin 
is emphatic. ‘ar Gs, @ man, a Jew, 
is merely a periphrasis for a Jew. Comp. 
avhp lovdaios, Acts x. 28. The prophecy 
is generally regarded as having respect 
to something yet future, and is often in- 
terpreted of the instrumentality of the 
Jews when converted in effecting the 
conversion «of the world. I can find no 
such reference in the passage. “ Jerusa- 
lem” cannot be understood otherwise 
than literally, just as the term “ Jew” 
is to be so understood ; but, according to 
our Lord’s doctrine respecting the New 
Dispensation, that city is no longer the 
place where men are exclusively to wor- 
ship the Father, John iv. 21—23. In- 
cense and a pure offering are now pre- 
sented to his name in every place where 
his people assemble in the name of Jesus 


Crap. IX. 


Of the skirt of a Jew, saying, 


We will go with you; 


ZECHARIAH. 


399 


For we have heard that God is with you. 


and with a view to his glory, Mal. i. 10, 
11. It was otherwise before the advent 
of Christ. Jerusalem was the place 
which Jehovah had chosen to put his 
name there, and thither all his true wor- 


shippers were expected to come to the 


great festivals, in whatever country they 
might reside. Thus, the treasurer of 
Candace went all the way from Abys- 
sinia, Acts viii. 27; and thus numbers 
from all parts of the Roman empire as- 
sembled in that city at the first Pentecost 
after our Saviour’s resurrection, As the 
Hellenistic Jews and the Gentile prose- 


could not but excite the curiosity of the 
pagans through whose countries and 
cities they passed; and celebrated as 
the metropolis of Judea had become for 
the favors conferred upon it by some of 
the greatest monarchs of the times im- 
mediately gone by, and for the prosperity 
and warlike prowess of the Jewish peo- 
ple, it was impossible that it should not 
attract the attention of the surrounding 
nations to the character and claims of the 
God who was there adored, and who 
accorded such blessings to his worship- 
pers. 


lytes travelled along in companies, they 





CHAPTER IX. 


For the arguments in opposition to, and those in favor of, the authenticity of that portion 
of the book of Zechariah which begins with this chapter, and comprises it and the re. 
maining chapters, see the Preface. 

Having in prophetic vision exhibited some of the more remarkable events connected with 
the continued rule of the Persians, Zechariah now proceeds to predict those which were 
to take place under that of the Greeks, during the military expeditions of Alexander and 
his successors, in so far as they had a bearing upon the affairs of the Jews. He describes 
the conquest of Syria after the battle of Issus, 1; and the progress of the army of Alex- 
ander along the coast of the Mediterranean, involving the capture of the principal cities 
of the Pheenicians and Philistines, but leaving the Jews unmolested, through the protect- 
ing care of Jehovah, 2—8. He then contrasts with the character and military achieve- 
ments of that conqueror the qualities which should distinguish the Messiah and his king- 
dom, whom he expressly predicts, 9,10. After which he resumes the thread of his his- 
torical discourse, and describes, the wars of the Maccabees with Antiochus Epiphanes, 
and the victory and prosperity with which they were followed, 11—17. 





1 Tue sentence of the word of Jehovah, 
Against the land of Hadrach, 


1. For the signification of sw, see 1, and Mal.i.1. As "27 occurs in the 
on Is, xiii. 1. The combination sv sense of oracle, and sivr2 signifies what 
mimsmast, occurs only here, chap. xii. is taken up and uttered by the voice, the 


400 ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. IX. 


And Damascus shall be its resting place, 
When towards Jehovah shall be the eye of man, 


And of all the tribes of Israel. 


phrase might be rendered, The announce- 
ment of the oracle of Jehovah ; but it is 
better for the sake of uniformity to re- 
tain the term sentence, which I have 
adopted in my translation of Isaiah. 
With respect to 747» Hadrach, it is 
uncertain whether it was intended to 
denote a country, a city, ora king. The 
last is the most probable, on the ground 
that it is not likely that the name either 
of a country or its metropolis, in a region 
near Damascus, would have entirely dis- 
appeared from the pages of history, But 
no such name has been found in any 
Arabic work either of history or geogra- 
phy. Joseph Abassus, indeed, a native 
of that country, informed Michaelis that 
there was a place so called at the dis- 
tance of some miles from Damascus; that 
it was now of small consequence, but 
had once been a city of great celebrity ; 
but there is every reason to believe that 
if he did not intend to impose upon his 
learned interrogator, the place he had in 


view was "y778, in Arabic wyle of, 


called by Eusebius *Adpad, and by Pto- 
lemy “Adpa. It lay about thirty miles 
from Damascus. The same remark ap- 
plies to the statement of Rabbi Jose, 
mentioned by Kimchi in his Comm. on 
this verse, that he was from Damascus, 
and that there was a place there, of which 
the name was Hadrach. The Rabbins 
consider the term to be a compound appel- 
lative of the Messiah, who was to be =n, 
sharp or severe towards the Gentiles, but 
1, tender towards Israel! Hengsten- 
berg, who treats on the subject at large 
in his Christology, vol. ii. pp. 69—77, 
Keith’s Translation, denies that it is a 
proper name at all, and regards it as a 
symbolical appellation of the Persian em- 
pire, which he thinks Zechariah would 
not designate by its proper name for fear 
of offending the government under which 
he lived. His reasoning in support of 


his hypothesis is very unsatisfactory, and 
his construction of "2p 25, Jer. li. 1, is 
perfectly ridiculous. I am compelled to 
acquiesce in the opinion, that a king of 
this name is meant, as the most probable 
of those that have been advanced, es- 
pecially as the phrase, “the land of a 
king,” is not without example in Scrip- 
ture; see Neh. ix. 22; and very much 
suspect that the word 54"%n, Hadrach, 
is after all only a corruption of “In, the 
common name of the kings of Syria, 
though such corruption must have taken 
place at a very early period, for it was 
found in the copy from which the version 
of the LXX. was made. The affix in 
imni is 125 in the preceding hemi- 
stich. Damascus was to be the place in 
which the Divine word or sentence was 
to rest or settle; in other words, where 
the threatened punishment would perma- 
nently be inflicted. That ancient city 
was taken by Alexander the Great after 
the battle at Issus, and formed part or 
the kingdom of the Seleucide, from 
whom it passed into the hands of the 
Romans. The native rule, which thus 
ceased on the Greek conquest, was never 
afterwards recovered. Several commen- 
tators, following the ancient versions, 
render the words, Ets j-y minh cz 
bane? "CED $51 , for ‘the eye of Jeho- 
vah is upon men and all the tribes of 
Israel, and explain them with reference 
to the universal judgments which the 
providence of God had brought or would 
bring upon the people in and around 
Palestine. But it is more natural to 
regard 4>» in construction with“131 C7, 
The reference will then be to the effect 
produced upon the minds of others as 
well as of the Israelites, by the success 
and progress of the army of Alexander. 
Apprehensive of danger, they should be 
compelled to look to Jehovah alone for 
deliverance. When Alexander threat- 





i 
; 
4 
; 


ee 


ee ee ee nt 


i a i ae 





Cuap. IX. 


ZECHARIAH. 


401 


2 Hamath also which is contiguous to it ; 
Tyre and Zidon, though she be very wise. 
3 Yea, though Tyre hath built a fortress for herself, 


And heaped up silver as dust, 


And fine gold as the mud of the streets ; 
4 Behold, Jehovah will dispossess her, © 

And strike her wealth into the sea, 

And she herself shall be burned with fire. 
5 Askelon shall see it and be afraid ; 

Gaza also, and shall be in great pain ; 


ened to punish the Jews on account of 
the refusal of Jaddua the high priest to 
swear fealty to him, they were thrown 
into the greatest consternation, and of- 
fered many sacrifices and prayers to God 
for deliverance. ‘> is here used as a 
particle of time. 

2. Hamath was the capital of a king- 
dom of the same name, which lay be- 
tween Zobah and Rehob, and to the 
north of Damascus. It was called by 
the Greeks Epiphania, but is now known 
by its ancient name, which it has all 
along retained among the natives. That 
the kingdom was conterminous to that 
of which Damascus was the metropolis 
is here expressed by ra—daan , the fem- 
inine affix referring to 4x , /and, in the 
preceding verse. The whole of Syria 
was subjugated by the Greeks, or sub- 
mitted to Alexander. Tyre and Zidon, 
which lay directly in the way of that 
monarch, as he marched along the coast 
of the Mediterranean towards Egypt, are 
next mentioned. Seeon Is. xxiii. The 
latter city voluntarily surrendered, and 
had Abdolonymus appointed as viceroy. 
Though originally the chief of all the 
Pheenician cities, and the mother of 
many colonies, yet at the time here 
referred to, she had become far inferior 
to Tyre, and quite sunk in comparison 
with her; on which account the predi- 
cate a] msn, she is very wise, though, 
in point of position, it might seem to be- 
long to j42x , Zidon, is nevertheless to 
be referred to 3, Tyre, as the more im- 
portant of the two cities. The Tyrians, 


51 


who had long been celebrated for their 
worldly wisdom, Ezek. xxviii. 3, 4, 4, 
12, 17, gave a specimen of it on the 
approach of the Grecian monarch. On 
his intimating that he wished to offer 
sacrifice in the temple of Hercules, they 
replied that the ancient and true temple 
of that god was at Old Tyre on the con- 
tinent, and sent him a crown of gold in 
testimony of their respect for so great a 
conqueror; hoping by these means to 
induce him to pass on without visiting 
their island. 

3. This verse is graphically descriptive 
of the insular and strongly fortified posi- 
tion of New Tyre, at the distance of 
seven hundred paces from the shore, and 
of the immense stores of wealth which 
it contained as the great emporium of 
Phoenician commerce. Ezek. xxvii. 

4, Instead of "J", many MSS., and 
some of them the best of the Spanish, 
read m4m>, which I have adopted as the 
true lection. Here is set forth the con- 
quest of Tyre by Alexander, who con- 
structed a causeway with the rubbish of 
Old Tyre from the shore to the island, 
and after a siege of seven months took 
the city by storm, put eight thousand of 
the inhabitants, who had not taken flight 
to Carthage, to the sword, sold thirteen 
thousand into slavery, crucified two 
thousand, and after plundering the city, 
burnt it to ashes. Jahn’s Heb. Com- 
monwealth, sect. 70. 

5. It may easily be imagined what 
terror the news of the fall of Tyre must 
have struck into the inhabitants of the 


402 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. IX. 


And Ekron, because her expectation hath made her ashamed ; 
The king shall perish from Gaza, 
And Askelon shall not be inhabited. 
6 A foreigner shall sit as ruler in Ashdod, 
And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. 
+ J will remove his blood from his mouth, 
And his abominations from between his teeth ; 
And he, even he, shall be left for our God, 
And shall be as a prince in Judah, 
And Ekron shall be as a Jebusite. 


cities further along the coast southward, 
who knew the destination and route of 
the victorious army. The prophet ac- 
cordingly precedes the march of the 
conqueror from Pheenicia into Philistia. 
The principal cities of the Philistines 
are here enumerated. Gath only is 
omitted, owing, probably, to its being 
farther inland, and thus lying somewhat 
out of the route of the army. For Ash- 
kelon, see on Amosi. 8. For Gaza and 
Ekron, on Amos i. 6. Ekron, lying 
farthest north of these cities, is repre- 
sented as exercising confidence in Tyre. 
While that city withstood the attack, she 
might expect Alexander to be, arrested 
in his course, and hope that he would 
give up his plan of invading Egypt. 
But when it fell, her hopes were gone. 
History is silent respecting the fate of 
these cities on occasién of the present 
expedition, but of Gaza it is recorded, 
that it resisted, and was captured after 
a siege of two months. Not fewer than 
ten thousand of the inhabitants were put 
to death, and the rest were sold into sla- 
very. Betis, the commander or governor 
of the city, was bound to a chariot with 
thongs thrust through the soles of his 
feet, and in this manner dragged around 
the city. It is not improbable, that it is 
specially to this circumstance that the 
words maz Jb san, the king shall 
perish from Gaza, refer: The title of 
king is frequently used in Scripture in a 
subordinate sense, to denote any chief 
ruler or governor. See Gen, xiv. 2.. 

6. For Ashdod, see on Amosi. 8, The 


word 43722 , Which occurs only here and 
Deut. xxiii. 2, has been considered of 
uncertain etymology. Lee thinks it may 
probably be a compound of 4:2, from, 
ty, a people, and 7, a foreigner ; but 
this conjecture, however ingenious, is not 
warranted by Hebrew usage. In Deut. 
the LXX. render it by é« médpyns, one 
born of a whore, but &Adoyeveis, a differ- 
ent race or people, best suits both pas- 
sages. See Blayney. According to the 
form, it must be regarded as the Hiphil 
participle of -72, a root not occurring 
in the Hebrew Scriptures, but signifying 
in more modern Hebrew, to mix. Comp. 
the Arab. , Mus, corruptus fuit. 


stenberg renders, rabble. By 44s , the 
pride of the Philistines, we are to under- 
stand the splendor of their cities, espec- 
ially of their temples. é 
7. This verse contains a prediction of 
the future conversion of the Philistines 
to the knowledge and service of the true 
God. The pronominal affix 4 refers to 
“ra, the foreign prince, as does sym, 
he, further on in the verse. Their aban- 
donment of idolatry, and their embrac- 
ing the true religion, is represented by 
their no longer drinking blood, and eat- 
ing things sacrificed to idols, both of 
which were common among the pagans, 
but prohibited by the Mosaic law, Numb. 
xxv. 2; Lev. vii. 26, xvii. 10, 12; and by 
the apostles, Acts xv. 29. It is implied 
that what the ruler did, would be done 
by the citizens subject to his power. He 
was to belong to God, as one who had 


Heng- 


Cnap. IX. 


ZECHARIAH. 


403 


8 And I will encamp about my house because of the army, 
Both when it passeth through, and when it returneth 5 
And no oppressor shall pass through them any more. 
For now do I look with mine eyes. 

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! 

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem ! 
Behold thy King will come to thee ; 
Righteous, and having salvation, 


joined himself to him by an act of self- 
dedication. Comp. Is. xliv. 5, lvi. 3. 
On his becoming a Jewish proselyte, he 
should be regarded as sustaining the dig- 
nity of one of the princes of Judah; no 
distinction should exist between them. 
The same idea is expressed in the paral- 
lel clause. The Jebusites were the orig- 
inal inhabitants of Jerusalem, who, on 
their subjugation by David, were incor- 
porated among the Jews, and enjoyed 
their privileges. 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, etc. 
8. For max, the Keri has the proper 
orthography sax , a host, or army. Je- 
hovah here promises to afford protection 
to the Jews (called, as in Hos. viii. 1, 
mint na, the house of Jehovah). They 
were not to be injured by the army of 
Alexander, either on its march to or from 
Egypt, a promise which was fulfilled to 
the letter; for while that monarch pun- 
ished the Samaritans, he showed great 
favor to the Jews. Nor was any foreign 
oppressor to invade their land, as the 
Assyrians and Chaldeans had done, dur- 
ing the period which was to intervene 
before the advent of the Messiah, pre- 
dicted in the verse immediately follow- 
ing. They were, indeed, subject to much 
suffering, both from the Egyptian and the 
Syrian kings, especially from Antiochus 
Epiphanes, but their nationality was not 
destroyed, and the evils to which they 
were exposed only paved the way for the 
Maccabean victories, and the establish- 
ment of the Asmonean dynasty. For 
this preservation they were indebted to 
the providence of God which watched 
over them for good. This is emphatically 
expressed in the last clause of the verse. 


9. From the great Grecian conqueror, 
and the temporal protection which Je- 
hovah would accord to his people, the 
prophet abruptly, and in the most sub- 
lime and animated strain, calls the atten- 
tion of the Jews to a Royal Personage 
of a very different character, the Mrs- 
SIAH, meek and righteous, the Prince 
and pattern of peace, and the Author of 
spiritual salvation to all his subjects. 
His advent was to be accompanied by 
such glorious results, that it was to be 
hailed with the most joyful anticipation. 
That the subject of the prophecy is the 
Messiah, is not only established by the 
inspired authority of the Evangelist Mat- 
thew, chap. xxi. 4, but has the suffrages 
of all the early Jewish authorities. It 
was not till the twelfth century that it 
was otherwise interpreted. Thus the 
Book of Zohar: pws by svar nt57321 
swan ty sisi sy. On this account 
it is said of Messiah, Lowly and riding 
upon an ass;” a statement which is re- 
peated in the same work. The same 
construction is put upon the passage by 
Joshua Ben Levi, Saadias Gaon, and 
others. The testimonies will be found 
in Wetstein on Matt. xxi. 4, who says in 
reference to them: ‘Magno consensu 
Judei dictum Zacharie de Messia inter- 
pretantur.” And Solomon Jarchi has 
the ingenuousness to acknowledge, x 
mvs ty ste onmet wes, that “it 
is impossible to interpret it of any other 
than the Messiah.” Of Him as the king 
of Zion it is predicted that he should be 
poms, righteous, a quality frequently 
ascribed to him in the Old Testament. 
See Is, xly. 21, liii. 11; Jer. xxiii. 5, 


404 


Lowly, and riding upon an ass, 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. IX, 


Even upon a colt the foal of an ass. 


xxxiii. 15; Mal. iv.2. With respect to 
yoso, oF, as it is pointed in some copies, 
y4:, of which Kimchi approves, on the 
ground of its being the preterite con- 
verted into the future by the 1 conversive, 
most modern commentators construe it 
as strictly passive in signification, and 
the more orthodox interpret it with ref- 
erence to Christ’s deliverance from the 
grave, after his sufferings upon the cross, 
rendering the passage, “righteous and 
saved.” But to such construction it 
must be objected, first, that the passive 
signification does not suit the connection, 
If the people had been the nominative 
to the verb, this signification would have 
been admissible; but it is the king who 
is here described, and to speak of him as 
saved or delivered without any reference 
to previous danger or suffering, would be 
most inappropriate. There is, therefore, 
a real exigentia loci: the context imper- 
atively requires the verb to be understood 
in an active sense. Secondly, though the 
usual signification of Niphal is passive, 
yet there are numerous instances in which 
verbs of that conjugation have a reflexive 
signification, which represent the agent 
as showing himself possessed of the qual- 
ity of the action, or in which the signifi- 
cation is purely active, especially verbs, 
which are not used in Kal. Thus “IN2, 
to show one’s self glorious ; >4%3 , to show 
one’s self obstinate, to murmur, complain ; 
823 , to prophecy ; ti2>2 » to desire great- 
ly; 2773; to approach ; y299 , C0 swear ; 
3252 , to obey, show one’s self obedient ; 

222, to lean, etc. And thus in the 
present case yh, showing himself a 
Saviour, having salvation, saving, a Sa- 
viour. Thirdly, that the verb is so to be 
interpreted here the combination of the 
term with p-73x, righteous, clearly shows; 
for it occupies the same position in rela- 
tion to that adjective, which the active 
participle a>5, riding, does to "22, lowly, 
in the following clause of the verse, As 


in the latter case the Messiah’s riding 
upon an ass was a proof or manifestation 
of his humility, so, in the former, his 
actually having salvation for others was 
a manifestation of his possessing that 
righteousness which was indispensable 


for the justification of the guilty. See 


1 Cor. i. 30; 2 Cor. v, 21; Phil. iii. 8, 
9; 1 John ii, 2. _ As the one feature con- 
trasted with the haughty character of 
the Grecian conqueror, so the other con- 
trasted with the cruelties that were in- 
flicted by him on the cities which he 
captured. The Son of Man came not 
to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. 
Fourthly, all the ancient versions render 
the verb actively. LXX. cé¢wy, Targ. 


o > 
pone» Syr. Loops, Vulg. Salvator, 
That "9, is here to be taken in the sense 
of meek, lowly, and not in that of poor, 
or afflicted, the connection sufficiently 
shows. Thus the LXX. zpaiis. In proof 
of the mild and gentle character of the 
Messiah’s reign, he is represented as rid- 
ing upon an ass, which, though not in 
the East the degraded and despised ani- 
mal which it is with us, being used by 
princes and other persons of rank, is 
nevertheless comparatively so as it re- 
gards the horse, and specially contrasts 
with the war-horse in the following verse. 
It was proverbially the symbol of peace, 
so that what the prophet here describes 
was at once calculated to inspire the 
mind with the conviction that the King 
of whom he spake was none other than 
the Prince of Peace, predicted Is. ix. 6. 
The 5 in -*y by, “and upon a colt,” is 
exegetical of the preceding. Comp. Gen. 
xlix. 11, niahs , she-usses, does not, 
as Michaelis would have it, convey the 
idea of the pedigree of the colt, as one 
of excellent breed, whose mothers could 
be traced back through several genera- 
tions, but is merely an idiomatic form, 
the plural being used for the singular. 
Comp. CIWS MN mountains, of Ara- 


OO a eee 





Cuap. IX. 


ZECHARIAH. 


405 


10 And I will cut off the chariots from Ephraim, - 
And the horse from Jerusalem ; 
The battle-bow also shall be cut off; 
And he shall speak peace to the nations ; 
And his rule shall be from sea to sea, - 
And from the river to the ends of the earth. 


11 


As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, 


I will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit 


vat, i. e. one of the mountains, etc., Gen. 
viii, 4. azda -™y, cities of Gilead, 2. e. 
one of them, Jud. xii. 7. For the ful- 
filment of the prophecy, see Matt. xxi. 
4, and the Commentators on that pas- 
sage. 

10. This verse contains a distinct an- 
nouncement of the nature and extent of 
the Messiah’s reign. Instead of leading 
forth the Jews to battle and conquest, as 
their Rabbins have long taught them to 
believe, he was in his providence com- 
pletely to disarm them, and render them 
incapable of engaging in hostile conflict. 
How literally this was accomplished their 
history subsequent to the destruction of 
Jerusalem by the Romans convincingly 
shows. The reign of the Messiah was 
not to be that of a worldly conqueror, 
like Alexander, nor was it to be confined, 
as to its boundaries, within the narrow 
limits of Palestine; but it was to be that 
under which the inestimable blessing of 
peace was preéminently to be enjoyed; 
it was to embrace the Gentiles, who had 
been excluded from the commonwealth 
of Israel; and, in point of extent, was 
to cover a vastly greater portion of terri- 
tory than ever was possessed by the war- 
rior of Macedon. On the circumstance 
that Ephraim is here mentioned, no valid 
argument can be built in favor of the 
hypothesis that this prophecy must have 
been delivered before the captivity of the 
ten tribes, since it is evidently the design 
of the prophet merely to describe the 
whole land of Canaan, the northern part 
of which still went by the ancient name, 
in contradistinction from Judah, which 
is here designated from Jerusalem, the 


capital. pits ann, to speak peace, 
means to announce the message of the 
reconciliation effected by the Messiah. 
From the express inclusion of the emia, 
nations, among those who were to enjoy 
the benefits of the spiritual reign of the 
King of Zion, it is manifest that what- 
ever may have been the originally re- 
stricted sense of "x "r3%3 CIT E27 
VISTOES, as descriptive of the utmost 
bounds of the Hebrew kingdom, the 
words must here be taken in the widest 
possible extent of meaning, just as in Ps. 
lxxii. 8, where it is declared in the con- 
nection, that al/ nations should serve the 
Messiah. 

11. Having been led by his predics 
tions respecting the expedition of Alex- 
ander in the direction of Egypt, to 
exhibit in boldest contrast the character 
and reign of the Prince of Peace, Zecha- 
riah returns to the subject which he had 
in hand — the state of the Jewish people 
in the times succeeding the captivity in 
Babylon. 2, also, connects what fol- 
lows with verses 6—8. The feminine 
pronoun ms refers to 44°z—ma, or 
pbgan-ns, ver.9. The covenant here 
called sne2 , thy covenant, means the 
covenant made with the Hebrews at 
Sinai, and ratified by the sprinkling of 
the blood of the victims slain upon the 
occasion. By that act the nation was 
consecrated as a peculiar people to Jeho- 
vah, and taken under his special protce- 
tion. The covenant is called theirs, 
because it had their government and 
happiness for its object. In virtue of the 
blood then shed, it is here declared that 
their covenant God would release such 


406 


In which there is no water. 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. IX. 


12. Return ye to the strong-hold, ye prisoners of hope, 
Even to-day I declare I will render to thee double ; 
13 For I have bent Judah for myself, 
I have filled the bow with Ephraim, 
And raised up thy sons, O Zion! 


Against thy sons, O Greece! 


And made thee as the sword of a hero. 


of them as were still captives in foreign 
lands. By 5°78 is meant, not pris- 
oners whom the Jews had taken, but 
such of their own nation as were in the 
condition just described. After the death 
of Alexander many thousands of Jews 
were in a state of exile in Egypt, and 
many thousands more in that of actual 
slavery in Greece and other parts of the 
East. Their condition is described as 
that of prisoners confined in dungeons, 
which were commonly cisterns without 
water. See Jer. xxxviii. 6 ; Gen. xxxvii. 
24. In consequence of the mud which 
remained in them, they were exceedingly 
noxious to health, and those consigned 
to them were considered as subjects of 
the deepest misery. *mm>¥ is not here 
the proper preterite, as some interpreters 
construe it, but the prophetic future, 
which is thrown into the form of the 
preterite to express the certainty of the 
event. 

12. With the Divine promise of release 
is connected the duty of the captives to 
embrace the opportunity afforded them 
of returning to their own land, where 
they should enjoy the protection and 
favor of the Most High. 4-2 occurs 
only in this place. It is derived from 
"x2, to cut off, to prevent the approach 
of an enemy, to erect an inaccessible 
fortification ; hence the signification of 
the noun, strong-hold, or fortress. LXX., 
dxtpwua. It forcibly contrasts with -42, 
the pit, in the preceding verse, and for 
this reason is not to be interpreted of 
Jerusalem considered as again fortified, 
but is used figuratively to express the 
security and prosperity which those 


should enjoy who returned from captiv- 
ity. Though captives, their condition 
was not hopeless. ‘They were not to 
abandon themselves to despair, but to 
exercise confidence in the promise of 
God that he would assuredly deliver 
them, nor were they to wait for the 
arrival of any distant period when they 
might return as a body; even then 
(e4°m fa) they might individually avail 
themselves of the invitation, and share 
in the blessings. The abundance of 
these blessings is expressed by the term 
m22% , double, which is elsewhere simi- 
larly employed to convey the idea of full 
or ample compensation, Is. lxi. 7. There 
is no foundation for the opinion of Mich- 
aelis, adopted by Blayney, who takes 
"2% to be a noun having the significa- 
tion of 53% , something precious, and. not 
the participle of Hiphil. 

13. The declaration here made, that 
Jehovah would lead forth the Hebrews 
to military operations, and crown these 
operations with success, cannot be recon- 
ciled with the statement made ver. 10, 
on any other principle but that which 
refers them to two totally different peri- 
ods of time. The one, as explained 
above, is predictive of the condition to 
which the nation was to be reduced after 
the advent of Messiah, instead of having 
become, under his reign, as they vainly 
expected, the conquerors of the world; 
the other sets forth the successful wars 
in which they would engage with the 
Grecian rulers of Syria under the com- 
mand of the Maccabees. The prophecy 
is parallel with that of Daniel, chap. xi. 
32. For the fulfilment see 1 Mace. i. 


Cuap. IX. 


ZECHARIAH. 


407 


14 And Jehovah shall appear on their behalf, 
And his arrows shall go forth as lightning ; 
Yea, the Lord Jehovah shall blow the trumpet, 
And march in the storms of the south. 
15 Jehovah of hosts shall protect them, 
And they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones ; 
They shall drink, they shall be noisy, as those who drink wine; 


They shall be full as the bow], 


As the corners of the altar. 


16 And Jehovah their God shall save his people, 
He shall save them as sheep in that day ; 
For they shall be as the stones of a crown, 
Carrying themselves highly over his land. 


62, ii. 41—43, iii. 33, etc. By a bold 
and expressive figure, the Hebrews are 
represented as the bows and arrows of 
Jehovah, the military implements which 
he would employ in resisting and over- 
coming the Grecians under Antiochus 
Epiphanes. By 417-"22, the sons of 
Greece, we are to understand, not the 
Greeks resident in Ionia or Greece, but 
those composing the army of the mon- 
arch just mentioned. Grotius remarks, 
that at the time here referred to, the 
Jews were accustomed to call the kings 
both of Syria and Egypt, yx.—-st, 
kings of Greece, because they were of 
Grecian extraction. 

14, Here commences a number of 
special promises of Divine interposition 
and protection, Considering what the 
Jews had experienced from hostile ar- 
mies, it was necessary to disarm their 
fears by such assurances, that God was 
on their side. He is represented as ap- 
pearing in the thunderstorm, with the 
lightnings of which his arrows are com- 
pared, and with the noise of its thunders, 
the sound of his trumpet, summoning to 
the attack. For “the storms of the 
south,” see on Is. xxi. 1. 

15. After 5b=s , they shall eat, supply 
“wa, flesh, i. e, of their enemies; and 
after 3 m3 supply t+, their blood. This 
highly figurative language is frequently 
employed in Scripture to express the de- 


struction of enemies in battle. >>>, 
like wine, is elliptical for 7>>—-"nw—ye> , 
like those who drink wine. Betore non A 
thirty-two MSS., originally four more, 
three by correction, eight printed edi- 
tions, and the Rabbins Nathan, Kimchi, 
and Abarbanel, supply the conjunctive 
1. By sdp 7228, sling-stones, the ene- 
mies are meant, as clearly appears from 
the contrasted form of expression, *:28 
“12 , stones of a crown, descriptive of the 
Jews, in the following verse. The phrase 
conveys the idea of feebleness and con- 
tempt. ‘The stones used for slinging are 
otherwise of no use or value. Carrying 
forward the idea of blood, reference is 
made to P32 12, the bowl, which was 
used to receive that of the sacrifices, and 
to m>.7, the corners of the altar, on the 
horns of which it was sprinkled. Abun- 
dant as was the blood thus shed and 
sprinkled should be that of the enemies 
of the Hebrews, 

16. For 9 4Xz>, as sheep, his peo- 
ple, comp. 742 4NxD . The words are 
neither in construction, nor in apposition, 
but are to be separated, so as to connect 
yx with y-v4>, understood as repeated 
from the beginning of the verse. By 
“Ti "2AN, crown stones, are meant the 
precious stones or gems which were set 
in crowns, and were of great value. The 
elevation of these, and consequently of 
the crown which co 





408 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. X. 


17 For how great is his goodness! and how great his beauty ! 
Corn shall cause the young men to thrive, 


And new wine the maids. 


strongly indicative of victory. For 593 
in the acceptation of being Aigh, comp. 
the Arab. x , elevavit rem; in the 


viii. Conj. elatus fuit; (yad, elevatus 
thronus. 

17. The affix in 42:0 and 4753 is 
most naturally to be associated with that 
in tnx at the close of the preceding 
verse, “and referred to Jehovah. The 
meaning is, the goodness and beauty 
which he bestows. Compare Jer. xxxi. 
12; Ps. xxv. 7. 2342", though occur- 
ring in the latter half, is common to both 
parts of the sentence. Piel has here the 


causative power of Hiphil. The root is 
252, to sprout, germinate, grow up. The 
prophet refers to the plenty which there 
should be in the land after the destruc- 
tion of the enemy. The drinking of 
must by young females is peculiar to this 
passage; but its being here expressly 
sanctioned by Divine authority, furn- 
ishes an unanswerable argument against 
those who would interdict all use of the 
fruit of the vine. s4a.m, new wine or 
must, so called from 3" , to take posses- 
sion of, because when taken to excess, it 
gains the mastery over the person who 
indulges in it. 





CHAPTER X. 


Turs chapter continues the subject with which the preceding concluded. The Hebrews are 
exhorted to apply to Jehovah for the constant supply of temporal blessings, 1, and are 
warned against an imitation of the conduct of their forefathers, who had recourse to 
false oracles, on account of which they and their rulers had been carried into captivity, 
2,3. Promises are then made of government by rulers of their own nation, and the vic- 
torious operations of their armies, 4,5; the complete re-establishment of the theocracy, 
6,7; the restoration of such of the nation as still remained in foreign countries, espec- 
ially in the East, and in Egypt, 8—11; and the chapter concludes with an assurance of the 
security and happiness which they should enjoy under the divine protection, 12. 





1 Asx ye from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain: 
Jehovah maketh the lightnings, 
And giveth them the heavy rain, 
To every one grass in the field. 

2 Surely the household gods spake vanity, 


1. This verse stands in the closest 
connection with the preceding. t3"5n, 
lightnings, the precursors of rain. =n, 
tr3, lit. rain of heavy rain, i. e. plen- 


tiful rain. Comp. Job xxxvii. 6, where 
the same words occur, only their order 
is inverted. 

2. c-Eant, the teraphim, or house- 


Cuap. X. 


And the diviners saw a lie ; 
They told false dreams, 


They gave vapor for coinfort ; 


ZECHARIAH. 


409 


Therefore they wandered as sheep ; 
They were afflicted because there was no shepherd. 
3 My anger burned against the shepherds, 


And I punished the ] he-goats ; 


Nevertheless Jehovah of hosts hath visited his flock, the house 


of Judah, 


And made them as his splendid horse in war. 
4 From him shall be the corner-stone, 


From him the peg, 
From him the battle-bow, 


hold gods, are opposed to Jehovah in the 
preceding verse. The term occurs only 
in the plural, and is of uncertain deri- 
vation. Gesenius refers it to the Arab. 


W5.3,.%0 live in comfort, and considers 
it as signifying the indicators or givers of 
pleasure or happiness; Lee to the Eth. 
re . } reliquus, superfuit, and thinks 
relics are meant. They appear to have 


had the form of the human body, and 


to have been consulted as oracles. See 
on Hos. iii. 4. The preterites and futures, 
which are intermixed, are all to be taken 
in the strictly past time, reference being 
had to the evils which had prevailed 
among the Jews, on account of which 
they had been carried away to Babylon, 
and against any further indulgence in 
which they are here warned. They were 
exposed afresh to the influence of idola- 
trous practices by their intercourse with 
the Syro-Grecian and Egyptian troops, 
which repeatedly traversed the land. 
Antiochus Bpiphanes actually set up a 
heathen idol in the temple at Jerusalem, 
and ordered temples and altars to be 
erected in the different cities throughout 
the country. 

3. The verb "ps is here used both in a 
good and a bad sense; followed by the 
preposition ty, it signifies to visit for 
evil, to punish ; governing the accusative, 
to visit with good. The 4 in ty is prop- 

52 


erly the 4 conversive, so that T4pEs is to 
be rendered in the preterite, to agree with 
man. By “he-goats” are meant the 
chiefs or leaders of the nation. 4:5> all 
the versions render, as if it had been 
322", in the preterite, which the con- 
nection requires. The “shepherds” and 
“he-goats” are used synonymously of the 
civil rulers. In the middle of this verse 
is a sudden transition from the calami- 
tous condition to which the Jews had 
been reduced as a punishment for their 
sins, to that of prosperity and military 
prowess to which they were raised in the 
time of the Maccabees. In the preceding 
chapter they had been set forth under the 
images of the bows and arrows; here 
they are represented under that of the 
battle-horse. The horse selected by the 
commander of an army on which to ride 
at its head, was stately and richly capar- 
isoned. The 5 in tso> is the Caph ver- 
itatis. 

4. 42%5%9 thrice repeated, possesses much 
emphasis. The nominative is maim? in 
the preceding verse. The Hebrews were 
not now to be subject to governors of 
foreign extraction or appointment, but 
were to be independent, enjoying the ben- 
efits of a native rule. By mas, corner- 
stone, is meant the prince or governor, 
on whom the political edifice may be 
said metaphorically to rest. The word is 
derived from mzB , to ¢urn, and primarily 


410 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. X. 


From him shall go forth each and every ruler. 
5 And as heroes shall they trample the enemy 
In the mud of the streets in battle ; 
They shall fight, for Jehovah is with them, 
And put to shame the riders on horses. 
6 I will strengthen the house of Judah, 
And deliver the house of Joseph, 
And will settle them, because I have pitied them ; 
And they shall be as if I had not cast them off ; 
For I Jehovah-am their God, and will answer them. 
7 And Ephraim shall be as a hero, 
And their heart shall rejoice, as those who drink wine ; 
Their sons shall see it and be glad ; 
Their heart shall exult in Jehovah. 
8 I will whistle for them and gather them, 


signifies a turning-point, angle or corner 
of a building. With us a nail would be 
an insignificant image, but tm>, the Ori- 
ental nail, is a large peg in the inside of 
a room, wrought into the wall when the 
house is built, and on which is hung all 
kinds of household stuff, together with 
the different implements of war. See on 
Is, xxii. 23. One of these, the bow, is 
mentioned immediately after, and stands 
for the whole. ‘w34» is used here simply 
in the sense of rwler. Compare the Eth, 


GUL, § ing. 

5. Supply ca", enemies, as the ob- 
ject to o-D42, trampling, and compare 
Is, xiv. 25, lxiii. 6. proxd 1254 refer 
to the numerous cavalry which composed 
the chief strength of the Syro-Grecian 
army (see 1 Mace. iii. 39), but which 
were put to the route by a mere handful 
of Jews. 

6. “The house of Joseph” stands for 
the ten tribes, in contradistinction to 
those of Judah and Benjamin, to which 
is given the name of “Judah” as the 
more important.of the two. It is clear 
from the reference thus made, that part, 
if not most of al] the tribes, returned and 
took possession of their patrimonial lands 
after the captivity. p*n$azin is a mixed 
form, supposed by Kimchi, Abarbanel, 


and some others, to have been artificially 
compounded of menawy, the Hiphil 
of asu, to return, and p-navin, the 
Hiphil of ag>, to sé or dwell, in order 
to express in one word both verbs as used 
by Jeremiah, nin pipen—}y en>osi 
mod monagni, chap. Xxxii. 37; but 
it is far more probable that the word 
is a corruption of p*mnayhn , introduced 
through inadvertence by some transcri- 
ber. Such is, indeed, the reading of 
many MSS. and of four printed editions, 
and is supported by the LXX. katoimed. 
The reading pn >%q, has the support 
of the Syr., Vulg., and Targ., but is less 
suitable to the connection. 

7. As the state of things here described 
was brought about by the heroic conduct 
of Ephraim, it is obvious the return from 
the captivity cannot be intended, for the 
Hebrews were altogether passive on that 
occasion. 'The reason why special men- 
tion is here made of the ten tribes may 
be their longer rejection by the Lord, 
and the exiled state in which many of 
them still were in the days of the prophet. 
prs, as a collective noun, is the nom- 
inative to ani. For y:s~h> see on 
chap. ix. 15. ~ ; 

8. An express promise of the restora- 
tion, settlement, and increase of the ten 


Cuap. X. 


For I have redeemed them, 


ZECHARIAHN. 


411 


And they shall increase, as they did increase. 

9 Though I have scattered them among the nations, 
Yet they shall remember me in the distant regions, 
And shall live with their children and return. 

10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, 
And gather them from Assyria ; 
And I will bring them to the land of Bashan and Lebanon, 
And room shall not be found for them. 
11 And he shall pass over the sea, 
He shall cleave and smite the waves of the sea, 
And all the deeps of the river shall dry up; 
The pride of Assyria shall be brought down, 
And the sceptre of Egypt shall depart. 


tribes, many of whom were still at that 
time in a state of exile. They were to 
be brought back to Palestine, and placed 
in a condition in which they should be 
able to act valiantly in defence of their 
country. The verb p+ 3 signifies to whis- 
tle, or give a shrill sound, as those who 
keep bees do, who, by means of a whis- 
tle, or pipe, call them out from and back 
to their hives. See on Is. v. 26. Jose- 
phus informs us, that two hundred years 
after the time here referred to, Galilee 
was peopled to an amazing extent, stud- 
ded with cities, towns, and villages; and 
adds, that the villages were not what 
were usually called by that name, but 
contained, some of them, fifteen thou- 
sand inhabitants. Jewish Wars, book 
iii, ch. iii. § 2. 

9. The first two Vaus are employed 
antithetically, the former having the sig- 
nification of though or indeed; the lat- 
ter, that of bué or yet.  ¥53 cannot here 
mean saved, as Hengstenberg contends, 
but must be rendered scatéered, which 
the verb primarily signifies, and the con- 
nection here requires. The last clause of 
the verse indicates the settled enjoyment 
of chartered privileges as before the dis- 
persion, when the Hebrews should return 
to their own land. 

10. We have no historical account of 
any specific removal of any belonging to 


the ten tribes into Egypt, but it cannot 
be doubted that, as in the case of the 
Jews in the time of Jeremiah, many of 
them betook themselves to that country 
for refuge on the invasion of Tiglath- 
pileser; and when Ptolemy attempted 
to seize the whole of Syria, and carried 
away 100,000 captives, whom he settled 
in Alexandria and Cyrene, vast numbers 
of them must have consisted of the 
descendants of those Israelites who had 
returned from the Eastern captivity. 
Those who had remained in the East 
were also to return. Comp. Is. xi. 11. 
sxv7a2 has here the signification of there 
being sufficient or enough, as in Kal, 
Numb. xi. 22; Jud, xxi. 14. ripe, 
room, or place, is understood. So great 
should be the number of inhabitants, 
that the territory, however ample and 
fertile, would not be able to furnish them 
with the necessary supplies. 

11. There is here an allusion to the 
original deliverance of the Hebrew peo- 
ple at the Red Sea. Comp. Is. xi. 15. 
The Divine interposition in behalf of 
those who were still in Egypt is not ex- 
pressly compared with what then took 
place, but such comparison is implied, 
mx has been variously rendered. The 


LXX. orevf, Vulg. freto, Syr. Li So}, 
angustia, Calvin, afflictio, Hengstenberg, 


412 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XI. 


12 And I will strengthen them through Jehovah, 
And they shall walk up and down in his name, 


Saith Jehovah. 


the distress, Blayney, Tyre, Hitzig, Zara, 
by which he understands the Nile. The 
difficulty is at once removed by taking 
max as a verb, with the Aramaic signifi- 


° . . 
cation of x43, 15 3 cut, cleave, divide, 


» resecuit, ampu- 


Comp. the Arab. Ss 


tavit. In which case three verbs, having 
Jehovah understood as their nominative, 
will follow in regular order: p72 7277 
pda ora mom ms. And he shall 
pass over the sea; he shall cleave and 
smite the waves of the sea. ‘The last 
words are literally, he shall smite the sea 


the Nile, and not the Euphrates, is 
meant, the use of the Egyptian word 
-4s> places beyond dispute. See on Is. 
xix. 6. With respect to srs, Ashu, 
it may justly be queried whether the 
Syro-Greek kingdom be not intended — 
that kingdom occupying not only the 
territory which belonged to ancient As- 
syria, but extending still further towards 
the east. The pride of that power, as 
well as the Egypto-Greek sceptre, was 
to be swept away. 

12. The phrase, nua yonnn , to walk 
in the name of a deity, is a Hebrew mode 
of speech, descriptive of a course of action 


into waves; or, as to the sea, he will 
smite its waves. Comp. Exod. xiv. 16, 
21; Is. xi. 15,16. That by “the river,” 


pursued in accordance with his character 
and will. Comp. Micah iv. 5. 





CHAPTER XI. 


It is obvious, from the nature of the predictions contained in this and the following chap- 
ters, that they must have been delivered at a time subsequent to the erection of the tem- 
ple. As they are exclusively occupied with denunciations of evil against the Jews, with 
the exception of interjected prophecies of the Messiah, and one relative to the final deliv- 
erance of the covenant people, they must have dispirited rather than encouraged those 
who were engaged in building the sacred edifice. It may be said, indeed, that there were 
many carnal and secure persons among the Jews, who required to be warned, and that 
the following denunciations were designed for their benefit; but, as the predictions do 
not relate to the times in which those persons lived, it is not conceivable how they could 
have so appropriated them as to derive effectual advantage from them. Besides, they 
contain no instances of direct address, or personal application of the truths delivered, 
such as we find in the other prophets when addressing themselves to their contemporaries 
for their immediate benefit. It may, therefore, be concluded, that they were communi- 
cated by Zechariah on some occasion or occasions of which we have no knowledge. 

The scenes here depicted lay in the more distant future. In the present chapter the prophet 
furnishes a bold figurative description of the destruction of the temple by the Romans, 
and the utter consternation into which the priests and rulers of the people should thereby 
be thrown, 1—3. He then describes certain symbolical actions performed by him in vision, 
by which he personated the Messiah who had been promised as the Shepherd of his peo- 
ple, setting forth his commission to teach and rule them, 4; their deplorable condition in 
consequence of the rapacious disposition of their leaders, 5; and the judgments that 
should overtake them in consequence of their wickedness, 6. Under the emblems of 
two staves the relation of the whole nation to God, as their protector, and the relation of 
the different tribes among themselves are exhibited, and the cessation of these relations 
is pointed out by the act of breaking the staves, 7—14. The three last verses set forth the 
character of Herod, and the judgment of God upon him for his wickedness. 


Cuap. XI. 


1 OpEN, O Lebanon! thy gates, 


ZECHARIAH. 


413 


That the fire may devour thy cedars. 
2 Howl, ye cypresses! for the cedars have fallen, 
Because the magnificent are destroyed : 
Howl, ye oaks of Bashan! for the fortified forest hath come 


down. 


3 There is the sound of the howling of the shepherds, 
Because their magnificence is destroyed ; 
There is the sound of the roaring of young lions, 
Because the pride of Jordan is destroyed. 


1. Some interpret this verse literally 
of the locality so called; others under- 
stand it figuratively, but apply it either 
to Jerusalem, or to the whole land of 
Palestine. The construction which most 
commends itself is that which applies it 
to the temple restrictively. Such is the 
ancient rabbinical interpretation. To the 
same effect is the remarkable declaration 
of Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai: “O 
sanctuary, sanctuary! why dost thou 
trouble thyself? I know of thee that 
thine end is to be left desolate, for Zech- 
ariah, the son of Iddo, has prophesied 
against thee long ago. Open thy doors, 
O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy 
cedars.” ‘Talmud, Bab. Yoma. fol. 39, 
col, 2. This interpretation seems to be 
referred to by Josephus, in his Jewish 
Wars, bk. vi. ch. v. § 3. The temple 
might with all propriety be figuratively 
called Lebanon, not only because the 
cedars with which it was built were 
brought from that mountain, but be- 
cause as J.ebanon was the most stately 
and magnificent of all in the vicinity 
of Palestine, so the temple was the most 
elorious of all objects in or about Jeru- 
salem. Its gates were kept carefully shut 
against all who had no right to thread 
its courts. Now it was to become a prey 
to the flames. ‘The prediction received 
its literal fulfilment in spite of the utmost 
solicitude of the Roman general to pre- 
serve the edifice. In vain did he attempt 
to save it from the flames, so that in a 
short time it was entirely consumed. 

2. win, the cypress, was greatly in- 


ferior to the cedar, but was employed 
for the floor and ceilings of the temple. 
‘‘The oaks of Bashan’’ were also used 
for purposes of building. These terms, 
however, are likewise to be interpreted 
figuratively of the priests and rulers of 
the temple, its superior and inferior offi- 
cers, together with the judges of the 
people. -.-y is used both of animate 
and inanimate objects. It is here em- 
ployed to denote those who were elevated 
in dignity and magnificent in apparel. 
Comp. Wan “as. By s:s2n 122, 
the fortified or inaccessible forest, is meant 
Jerusalem, the houses of which were nu- 
merous and close together as the trees of 
the forest, and round which the Jews 
had thrown up a wall of great strength. 
Comp. Micah iii. 12. For s;s3, many 
MSS., and two early editions, read -"=2, 
which is only another form to express the 
same thing. 

3. The Jewish rulers are called “shep- 
herds,’’ with reference to their office, and 
“young lions,” in regard to their fierce 
and rapacious disposition. The n==s, 
was the magnificence of the temple of 
which they boasted. Comp. Mark xiii. 
1; Luke xxi. 5. y252n 683, the pride 
of Jordan, i. e. the thickets which orna- 
ment its banks, and furnish excellent 
lairs for lions, has the same figurative 
reference, and is selected to correspond to 
the young lions immediately preceding. 
Comp. Jer. xii. 5, xlix. 19. The leaders 
of the Jews are represented as indulging 
in loud wailings of despair, on account of 


the destruction of their temple and polity. 


414 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XI, 


4 Thus saith Jehovah my God, 


Feed the sheep of slaughter ; 


5 Whose possessors kill them, and are not held guilty ; 
And each of those who sell them saith, 
Blessed be Jehovah, I am enriched ; 
And none of whose shepherds spareth them. 


4,5. The prophet now proceeds to 
point out the cause of the destruction 
which he had figuratively described, and 
that of the people which was connected 
with it—the obstinate refusal of their 
rulers to receive the doctrine of the Mes- 
siah. By maann yws, the sheep of 
slaughter, are meant the people devoted 
to destruction. Comp. mn3zu 48s, Ps. 
xliv. 23. At the fall of Jerusalem not 
fewer than 1,100,000 Jews perished, 
and near a million and a half altogether 
in the course of the war. It has been 
questioned, who is the person directed 
in this verse to assume the office of a 
shepherd, and who declares, ver, 7, that 
he performed the duties of that office? 
Frischmuth, Marckius, Michaelis, and 
others, are of opinion that it is the Mes- 
siah, and, unquestionably, if ultimate 
reference be had to him, this is the true 
interpretation; but it is equally clear 
that the prophet is to be regarded as 
having received the commission, and 
performed, in vision, what was enjoined 
upon him. What proves this, is the 
putting into the hands of the same per- 
son the instruments of a foolish shep- 
herd, ver. 15, an action which can with 
no propriety be referred to the Messiah. 
On this principle, most of the difficulties 
connected with the exegesis of the inter- 
vening verses vanish. Zechariah had all 
the transactions presented to his view in 
prophetic vision, but what he describes 
was actually done, not in his own per- 
sonal history, or in any outward occur- 
rences between him and the Jews of his 
time, but in the personal history and 
office of the Messiah whom he person- 
ated. He did not really feed or teach 
those who were to be slain, but the 


Messiah and his apostles did; and had 
the Jews believed their message, the 
awful calamity would have been averted. 
The hypothesis of a prophetic vision was 
first advanced by Maimonides, and is 
ably supported by Hengstenberg, in his 
Christology, and by Dr. McCaul, in his 
translation of Kimchi on our prophet. 
That by the buyers and sellers of the 
Jewish people, we are not to understand 
the Romans, but their own unprincipled 
teachers and rulers, the facts of the case 
show. The corresponding term tr*y5, 
their shepherds, is merely expletive of 
what the same persons were officially. 
The avarice of the Pharisees was exces- 
sive, yet they had the barefaced hypoc- 
risy to thank God for their ill gotten 
wealth, and because they were not pun- 
ished, they imagined they might perse- 
vere with impunity. The construction 
of the plural nouns 4m73p, Wasi, and 
pon25, with the singulars -ysx> and 
buom2, cannot, with any propriety, be 
accounted for on the principle advanced 
by Hengstenberg, that Jehovah himself 
was the principal actor, and that the 
wicked rulers were merely his instru- 
ments. It is only a more emphatic made 
of construction, by which each of the 
individuals specified in the plural is rep- 
resented as performing the action, see 
Gen. xxvii. 29; Exod. xxxi. 14; Prov. 
iii. 18. The masculine affix pm refers 
to the people, strictly so taken; the fem- 
inine 4m, to them considered under the 
idea of the sheep that were to be fed, 
4Nx being of the common gender. There 
is, therefore, no ground for correcting the 
text by changing pny into ya7P4, the 
reading of fifteen MSS. and some printed 
editions, 


Cuap. XI. 


ZECHARIAH. 


415 


6 For I will'no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith 


Jehovah, 


But behold! I will deliver the men, 
Each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his 


king ; 


And they shall destroy the land, 
' And I will not deliver them out of their hand. 
7 And I fed the sheep of slaughter, truly miserable sheep! 


6. The particle 5, for, connects what 
follows with the command, ver. 4. The 
Jews were no longer to have Divine pity 
extended to them, but were to be aban- 
doned to all the evils of civil discord, and 
to the oppressions of a foreign rule. That 
the king here referred to was the Roman 
emperor, is obvious from the acknowl- 
edgment of the Jews themselves: ‘* We 
have no king but Cesar.” John xix. 15, 
The verb rnp , to beat, or dash in pieces, 
is most appropriately chosen to express 
the destructive measures adopted by the 
Romans, by which the Jewish polity was 
broken up. The nominative is the troops 
of the foreign ruler that had just been 
spoken of, | 

7. The prophet declares, in the name 
of the Messiah, that he executed the 
task committed to him. ‘This was ful- 
filled during the personal ministry of 
our Lord. 4X7 229 425 lave been 
variously rendered, LXX. cls rhy 


Xavawirw: Syr. & Ls 1A mn io, 
Lids Las, the little ones on account 


of the collection of the sheep. Vulg. 
propter hoc 6 paupere egregis. Leo Juda, 
adeoque pauperes gregis. Tremellius and 
Junius, vos inquam, 6 pauperes gregis. 
Schmid, J. H. Michaelis, Newcome, Hit- 
zig, and others, propter vos, 0 miseri gre- 
gis. Maurer, pavi igitur miserrimus ovi- 
wm. Arnheim, fitrmahr die elendesz 
ten der Heerde. Ewald, wirflich die 
unglicflichsten Cchafe. The only 
real difficulty lies in the word 533. The 
LXX. have read it, and the following 
word, as one, thus, "":¥25$, and made 


Canaanite of it. This rendering is 
adopted by Blayney, only he attaches to 
the term the idea of merchant, which it 
sometimes has (among those who traf- 
Jicked with the flock ), and explains it of 
the buyers and sellers of the flock, de- 
scribed ver. 5, The interpretation is so 
far specious, and is approved by Jahn, 
but cannot be philologically sustained. 
Some take j>% for the infinitive in Hi- 
phal of 45>, which furnishes no tolerable 
sense; others, for the dative of the sec- 
ond personal feminine pronoun, suppos- 
ing the Segol to have been changed into 
a Tzére, but this is liable to the same 
objection. Most regard it as the particle 
425, and construe it either with its cau- 
sal, or its adversative signification ; but 
neither do any of the interpretations thus 
brought out satisfactorily meet the exi- 
gencies of the case. I cannot help think- 
ing that the 4 is here redundant, as it is 
in many instances, and that we must 
construe 45, as in ver. 11, where it 
occurs without the 4. The term is 
properly a participial noun, derived from 


yi>, in the sense of the Arab. |,,45, 


esse, and implies reality, certainty, or the 
like, but admits of being variously ren- 
dered, according to the context in which 
it is found. See Lee’s Heb. Lex. in voe, 
And thus it is understood by Kimchi, 
Jarchi, Castalio, De Dieu, Drusius, Storr, 
Dathe, Arnheim, De Wette, and Ewald. 
Even were the $ retained, the same result 
would be brought out, the rendering in 
this case being, with respect to truth, i. e. 
truly ; just as in mxzb, with respect to 
perpetuity, i, e. forever. The words 
(8571 132 are the superlative of con- 


416 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuapr. XI. 


And I took to myself two crooks; the one I called Grace, and 


8 the other I called Bands, and I fed the sheep. 


And I eut off 


the three shepherds within one month; and my soul loathed 
9 them, and their soul also rejected me. So that I said: 


I will not feed you ; 


That which is dying, let it die ; : 
And that which is being cut off, let it be cut off; 
And as for the rest, let them eat each the flesh of another, 


struction, as in px, “35, the most 
wicked of nations, Ezek. vii. 24 ; “ris 
tina, the choicest of his cypresses, 
Jer. xxxvii. 7; or, what is quite parallel 
with the present case, 4x27 "7"°FS » Ten- 
dered in our common version, the least 
of the flock. The article is as usual to 
be referred to the former of the two 
nouns, and both might be rendered, the 
most miserable of sheep, or the most mis- 
erable sheep. Such was the state to 
which the Jewish people were reduced 
in the days of our Lord. They were 
eoxvaueévot kal éppiuevor, doe mpéBata wh 
txovra moméva. Matt, ix. 36. They 
were worried and harassed in every 
possible way, mpéBata &moAwAdra, Matt. 
x. 6. The two staves were symbolical 
of the different modes of treatment which 
the Hebrews had experienced under the 
guidance and protection of the provi- 
dence of God. One of them was called 
tz5, Grace, or Favor, to indicate the 
kindness of Jehovah to them in restrain- 
ing the surrounding nations from over- 
powering them, and carrying them again 
into captivity. See ver. 10. To the 
other was given the name of p*t=h, 
which Drusius, Marckius, the Dutch 
translators, and others, render Binders, 
but better, Bands, expressing the ties 
which unite parties together. The LXX., 
Aq., Symm., cxolveua; Vulg. Suniculi ; 
Maurer, conjuncti, Sederati. Reference 
is had to the fraternal confederacy into 
which the Jews and Israclites had en- 
tered with each other after the return 
from Babylon. See yer. 14. The last 
clause of the verse is a repetition of the 
first, for the sake of emphasis, 


8. Who “the three shepherds” here 
definitely pointed out were, cannot be 
determined with certainty. All kinds 
of interpretations have been given, from 
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, suggested to 
Jerome, by his Hebrew Rabbi, to the 
Roman emperors Galbus, Otho, and Vi- 
tellius, in Calmet. The only construc- 
tion which is at all entitled to any notice, 
is that which regards the language as 
descriptive of the three orders of rulers 
in the Jewish state—the priests, the 
teachers of the law, and the civil magis- 
trates. These were the persons of influ- 
ence by whom the affairs of the nation 
were conducted, and to whose wicked- 
ness, which reached its culminating 
point when they crucified the Lord of 
Glory, the destruction of the state is to 
be ascribed. “MS M13, one month, doubt- 
less refers to the last period of the siege 
of Jerusalem, when everything was 
thrown into confusion, and all authority 
came toanend. =" >, ¢o hide, conceal ; 
in Hiphil, as here, a¢aviCew, to cause to 
disappear, to cause to cease with respect 
to office, to remove from it. The last 
two lines of the verse point out the 
mutual dissatisfaction and disgust with 
which the wicked rulers and the Messiah 
regarded each other. %r3, oceurs only 
here, and Prov. xx. 21. Comp. the 
cognate root tyn, to reject, and the 


Arab. hs 4; impulsus yaladus, propul- 
820 vehemens ; ’ maledixit, III. ere=- 


cratus fuit. 

9. The entire abandonment of the 
Hebrew people is here most affectingly 
set forth. For the threefold destruction 
here predicted, comp. Jer. xy. 1, 2, 


Carp. XI. 


10 


11 break my covenant which I had made with all the nations. 


ZECHARIAH. 


417 


I then took my crook Grace, and cut it asunder in order to 


And 


it was broken in that day, and the miserable sheep that gave 
heed to me, knew of a truth that it was the word of Jehovah. 
12 And I said to them, If it be good in your eyes, give my reward ; 


13 and if not, forbear. 


So they weighed my reward, thirty pieces 


of silver. And Jehovah said to me, Cast it to the potter, the 


xxxiv. 17; Ezek. vi. 12. And for the 
fulfilment, see Josephus. 

10. By this symbolical action, the 
removal of the restraint which Jehovah 
had exercised over the nations, whereby 
the destruction of the Jewish people had 
been prevented, is strikingly represented. 
The exercise of restraint with respect to 
hostile forces is elsewhere spoken of under 
the idea‘of a covenant. See Job v. 23; 
Ezek. xxxiv. 25; Hos. ii. 18. When 
this restraint was removed, the Romans 
invaded Judea, and destroyed the city 
and polity of the ancient people of God. 
That by t~%22 , people or nations, we are 
to understand foreign nations, and not 
the Hebrew tribes, is now agreed among 
the best interpreters. 

11. The anticipated accomplishment 
of the prediction, and the conviction 
wrought in the minds of the pious por- 
tion of the Jewish people, that the pre- 
diction was indeed divine. For the force 
of 5> see on ver. 7. The LXX. again 
join the two words, and render, of Xava- 
avotot. 

12, 13. On the question of the appli- 
cation of these verses to the circumstan- 

-ces narrated Matt. xxvii. 7—10, a very 
decided difference of opinion has ob- 
tained. This difference has been occa- 
sioned, partly by the fact of certain dis- 
crepancies existing between the accounts 
which they furnish of the transactions, 
and partly by the more important con- 
sideration that the Evangelist expressly 
ascribes the words which he quotes to 
Jeremiah, and not to Zechariah. With 
respect to the former of these points, it 
may, to a considerable extent, be obvi- 
ated by the general observation, that the 


53 


discrepances are not greater than we meet 
with in several other quotations made 
from the Old Testament by the writers 
of the New, and are by no means such 
as to affect the end which either the 
prophet or the Evangelist had in view. 
In producing the citation, the latter had 
his eye more intent upon the historical 
circumstances which he had just detailed, 
than upon the strict grammatical con- 
struction and verbality of the language 
employed in the prophecy. He fixes 
upon the principal points, the despicable 
price at which the Messiah had been 
sold, and the appropriation of the money 
as a compensation to the potter for the 
possession of his field ; and having faith- 
fully exhibited these to the view of his 
readers, he is less solicitous about the 
wording of the prophet. The very 
changes which he introduces into the 
phraseology are such as his position in 
the character of an historian required. 
Thus, instead of privb2% "Ap? TEN, 
at which I was estimated by them, Mat- 
thew has ty ériuhoavto amd vidy "lopaha, 
at which he was estimated by the sons of 
Israel. Instead of F525 Dds HnpN, 

And I took the thirty pieces of silver, we 
find, kal ZAaBov r& Tpidkovra &pyipia, and 
they took the thirty pieces of silver. In- 
stead of 5rs pba , and I threw it, 
the Gospel has, ka) Swkav abra, and they 
gave them. The freedom with which the 
Evangelist renders 5$¢3 by d/Swu: is the 
more noticeable, since he employs the 
participle pias in reference to the same 
subject in the fifth verse, where, at the 
same time, he renders ; nin mea. by ev 
7@ vas. The conjecture of some that 
“xi, potter, is a corruption of =s$x, 


* 418 
splendid price at which I was 


treasurer, is worse than gratuitous, as the 
latter word nowhere occurs in Hebrew in 
reference to such an office, and as the pot- 
ter was the most suitable person to whom 
to cast the despicable sum, occupying as he 
did a workshop in the valley of Hinnom, 
Jer. xviii. 1, 3, xix. 2, which was held 
in abomination by the Jews. That the 
Evangelist should have ascribed the pre- 
diction to Jeremiah has proved a source 
of great perplexity to critics. No person 
who has read the passage in Zechariah 
can peruse that in Matthew without 
at once being reminded of it. And so 
exactly do they tally in every important 
point, that no doubt of their relationship 
can for a moment be entertained. On 
the other hand, no such passage is to be 
found in any part of the prophecies of 
Jeremiah. The lution of the difficulty 
proposed by Hengstenberg, that it was 
the object of our prophet to bring forward 
to view the predictions contained in Jer. 
Xviii. xix., in order to point out the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 
and that on this ground the Evangelist 
might, with all propriety, ascribe the 
authorship to Jeremiah, is very unsatis- 
factory ; and we are shut up to one or 
other of the following conclusions: First, 
that the one name was substituted for the 
other by a lapsus memoria. Secondly, 
that the portion of the book of Zechariah, 
in which the words are found, though now 
bearing his name, was actually written 
by Jeremiah, and by some means or other, 
to us unknown, has been appended to 
the real prophecies of Zechariah. Third- 
ly, that the citation is made from an 
apocryphal book of the prophet Jere- 
miah. Or lastly, that there is a corrup- 
tion of the name in the Greek text of 
Matthew. The first of these positions 
will not be admitted by any who believe 
in the plenary inspiration of the Apos- 
tles; a doctrine fully established on 
Scripture authority, and which, if de- 
nied, would completely annihilate our 
confidence in their testimony. If their 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuar. XI. 


estimated by them! And I took 


memory might fail, or they might be 
mistaken in one instance, such might be 
the case in hundreds. For a refutation 
of the second hypothesis, see the Preface, 
in which it is shown that there is no 
solid foundation for the opinion, that the 
last six chapters of Zechariah were not 
written by that prophet. With respect 
to the third supposition, it cannot be 
denied that there was an apocryphal 
book of Jeremiah, containing an analo- 
gous passage. Jerome found it among 
the Nazarenes, and a portion of it still 
exists in a Sahidic Lectionary, in the Co- 
dex Huntingtonianus 5, in the Bodleian 
Library, Oxford, and in the Coptic lan- 
guage in the MS. 51 fol. in the library 
of St. Germain in Paris. The words 
are as follows: * Jeremiah spake again 
to Pashur, Ye and your fathers have 
resisted the truth, and your sons, which 
shall come after you, will commit more 
grievous sins than ye. For they will 
give the price of him that is valued, and 
do injury to him that maketh the sick 
whole, and forgiving iniquity. And 
they will take thirty pieces of silver, the 
price which the children of Israel have 
given. ‘They have given them for the 
potter’s field, as the Lord commanded, 
And thus it shall be spoken: The sen- 
tence of eternal punishment shall fall 
upon them, and upon their children, be- 
cause they have shed innocent blood.” 
But who does not perceive in this frag- 
ment the clumsy attempt of one of the 
early Christians to support the cause of 
truth by what was deemed a harmless 
fraud? Jerome at once rejected it as 
spurious, and expresses his belief that 
Matthew made his citation from Zecha- 
riah. It only remains that we assume 
a corruption in the Greek text of the 
Evangelist. That a variety of reading 
exists has long been matter of notoriety. 
Augustine mentions, that in his time 
some MSS, omitted the name of "Iepeuiov. 
It is also omitted in the MS. 33, 157; in 
the Syriac, which is the most ancient of 


Cuap. XI. 


ZECHARIAH. 


419 


the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of Je- 


hovah, to the potter. 
14 


Then I cut asunder my second crook Bands, in order to break 


the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. 


15 
of a foolish shepherd ; 
16 


And Jehovah said to me, Take to thee yet the instruments 


For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land ; 


Those which are perishing he will not visit, 
That which strayeth he will not seek, 

That which is wounded he will not heal, , 
That which standeth he will not nourish ; © 


all the versions; in the Polyglott Persic, 
and in a Persic MS. in my possession, 
bearing date a. p. 1057; in the modern 
Greek ; in the Verona and Vercelli Latin 
MSS. and in a Latin MS. of Luce. Brug. 
The Greek MS. 22, reads Zaxapiov, as 
also do the Philoxenian Syriac in the 
margin, and an Arabic MS. quoted by 
Bengel. Origen and Eusebius were in 
favor of this reading. I think it very 
probable that Matthew did not insert 
either name, but simply wrote in his 
Hebrew Gospel, 8327 172 , by the proph- 
et, just as in chap. i. 22, ii. 5, 15, xiii. 35, 
xxi. 4, xxvii. 35; and that his Greek 
translator, mistaking + in +72 for 4, 
read =*n, which he considered to be a 
contraction for »;770""2, and so rendered 
it 51a "lepeuiov tov mpophrov. ‘This read- 
ing having found its way into the first 
Greek MS., will account for its all but 
universal propagation. Another conjec- 
ture supposes “Ipiov to have been written 
by some early copyist instead of Zpiov. 
I only add, that there can be no doubt 
the passage in question existed in the 
book of Zechariah in the Jewish canon 
in the days of the Evangelist, since it is 
found to occupy that place in the text 
of the LXX. which was formed three 
hundred years previously. 

14, For the meaning of pban Bands, 
see on ver. 7. The circumstances here 
predicted were those of the utter breaking 
up of the social condition of the Hebrews. 
This dissolution was in no small degree 


brought about by the internal dissensions 
which prevailed among themselves, the 
rage of the different parties against each 
other, and the barbarities that they prac- 
tised, which none could have indulged 
in but such as had their hearts steeled 
against every feeling of brotherhood or 
humanity. ‘Yet by these men,” says 
Josephus, ‘ the ancient prediction seemed 
rapidly drawing to its fulfilment: That 
when civil war should break out in the 
city, and the temple be profaned by the 
hands of native Jews, the city should be 
taken, and the temple burned with fire.” 

15. 34», again, refers back to what is 
recorded ver. 7. The px>>, here as a 
collective in the singular ">> , were the 
articles usually belonging to shepherds, 
viz. a crook, a bag or wallet containing 
food, a pipe or reed, a knife, etc. In- 
stead of "b>, one of De Rossi’s MSS., 
the Halle Bible of 1720, the Vatican 
copy of the LXX., the Syr., Vulg., and 
Arab., read »>>, the punctuation of the 
plural. -tiy, foolish, by implication 


wicked, as wickedness is often represented 
_in Scripture as folly. 


16. B*p12 is employed here, like simi- 
lar verbs in Hiphil, to denote not any 
direct moral excitement to action, but 
the operation of concurring circumstan- 
ces, under the Divine government, in 
consequence of which certain events are 
brought about by responsible human 
agency. nnn, those that are per- 
ishing, the Niphal participle of am, 


420 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XI. 


But he will eat the flesh of the fat, 
And will break off their hoofs. 


17 


Woe to the worthless shepherd, that leaveth the flock ; 


The sword shall be upon his arm, 


And upon his right eye ; 


His arm shall be utterly palsied, 
And his right eye utterly darkened. 


which in Hiphal and Niphal signifies ¢o 
cut off or be destroyed. 33 is not to be 
taken in the sense of young, as it is 
interpreted by Kimchi and Hitzig, since 
it is never so used, except with reference 
to human beings, but signifies expulsion, 
that which has been cast out, by impli- 
cation, strayed, wandered. Comp. the 


Arabic ) Le, repulsus, in fugam versus. 


manon, that which standeth still. 233 
properly signifies to set or place, in Ni- 
phal, to stand, stand firm, be strong, firm, 
sound ; and thus the LXX. here 6AdKan- 
poy, but this interpretation is quite at 
variance with the exigency of the place, 
which requires the idea of weakness 
rather than strength to be expressed. 
And this the verb naturally suggests, 
reference being had to the standing, or 
standing still of sheep that are obliged, 
through weakness or faintness, to lag 


behind. Comp. the Arabic 3, 


posuit, fixit, and then dolore affecit, las- 
sus fuit, laboravit. Such it devolves 
upon the shepherd to provide with nec- 
essary nourishment, or, as it is here ex- 
pressed, bat>, to sustain, Furnish with 
provisions. Root S35, to measure grain, 
The words p»s> VOB are expres- 
sive of the greatest cruelty, being de- 
scriptive of an act which must not 
only occasion the most acute pain, but 
disable the animals, and prevent their 


going about in quest of pasture. Who 
the ruler here depicted is, cannot with 
certainty be determined. If taken as 
pointing to an individual king, there is 
none to whom it will more aptly apply 
than to Herod, who was totally regard- _ 
less of the real interest of the Jews, and 
whose reign was marked by the perpe- 
tration of the most shameful and barba- 
rous cruelties. What goes to confirm 
this view is the circumstance of his being 
said to be raised up “ in the land.” 

17. This denunciation seems to be di- 
rected against the wicked rulers of the 
Jews who might be in office between the 
time of the prophet, and that of the dis- 
solution of the Jewish state, rather than 
against the person referred to in the pre- 
ceding verse. The » in »y5 is not the 
pronominal affix, but the poetic para- 
gogic, as in the following =ar3, and 
other participles. See Gen. xlix. 11; 
Deut. xxxiii, 16; Ps. exiv. 8, exxiii, 1. 
betem cy4, the worthless or good-for- 
nothing shepherd. Comp. Job xiii. 4, 
The root must unquestionably have been 
bos. Comp. t>2 from $b; DAD 
from 225. The character described is 
that of negligence, arising from the total 
absence of a sense of official claims, and 
of personal responsibility. The rest of 
the verse from a3 onward, is to be 
taken optatively. ‘The doom imprecated 
is truly awful — an utter deprivation of 
power and intelligence, 


Cuap. XII. ZECHARIAH. 421 


CHAPTER XII. 


Tuts chapter contains a series of predictions, which relate to the future restoration of the 
scattered people of the Jews, the destruction of whose national polity. and their conse- 
quent wretchedness, had been so graphically set forth in that which precedes it. On their 
return to their own land, Jerusalem shall prove formidable to the nations that oppose 
them, 2—4, having a regular government, by which, in reliance upon Jehovah, the inhab- 
itants shall be protected, 5,6. To prevent the inhabitants of the metropolis from glory- 
ing over their brethren in the country. the latter shall be first delivered from their inva 
ders, 7; but Jerusalem being the principal point of attack, special promises of deliverance 
are made to it, 8,9. When the Jews shall have been collected. and delivered from the 
opposing powers, there will be a remarkable effusion of the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
in consequence of which a season of great and universal mourning, on account of the 
crucifixion of the Messiah, will be observed, each family bewailing separately the guilt 
entailed upon it by the nefarious deed, 10—14. 

As might be expected to be the case with unfulfilled prophecy, a considerable degree of 
obscurity necessarily attaches to certain portions of this and the two following chapters; 
but the leading features of the Divine dealings with the Jews in times yet future. are 
marked with a sufficient degree of distinctness to enable us to form a general idea of the 
circumstances in which they will be placed. 





1 Tux Sentence of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel ; 
Saith Jehovah, who stretcheth forth the heavens, 
Who layeth the foundations of the earth, 
And formeth the spirit of man within him: 

2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of intoxication 


To all the people around ; 


1. That stv does not necessarily 
involve a sentence of judgment, see on 
Is. xiii. 1; and for the entire phrase, 
mim? 27 Nie , see on chap. ix. 1. That 
it cannot be so taken here is manifest 
from the connection. Hengstenberg, in 
order to establish the contrary hypothe- 
sis, is obliged to have recourse to the des- 
perate resort of interpreting Israe/ of the 
enemies of God! The term is obviously 
employed in its original acceptation, as 
designating the whole Hebrew people. 
With no other reference could it have 
been introduced. To remove all the 
doubts which unbelief might suggest 
respecting the possibility of the deliver- 
ance here predicted, a sublime descrip- 
tion is given of the omnipotent Creator 
by whom it would be effected, than 


which no introduction could have been 
more appropriate. For tas—min 34, 
compare Ilatijp Tay aveupdroy, Heb. xii. 
9, and Numb. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16; and 
for the several predicates, Is. xlii. 5. 

2. te5 50, some render a shaking 
threshold, in imitation of the LXX. és 
mpddsupa gadevdueva, and interpret the 
declaration here made of the concussion 
which Jerusalem should receive from the 
attack of the enemy ; but it is more nat- 
ural to regard the phrase as only another 
form for = nosnAn o*a, Is. li. 17, 22, by 
which is meant a cup filled with intoxi- 
cating liquors, causing those who drink 
it to reed and stagger to their injury. 
Root tz4, to shake, reel, stagger. The 
attempt of Hengstenberg to deny that 
52 is ever used to denote a cup, is a com- 


4922 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XII. 


And also with Judah it shall be thus, 


In the siege of Jerusalem. 


3 And it shall be in that day, I will make Jerusalem 
A burdensome stone to all people, 


All that lift it shall be cut in pieces : 
Yet all the nations of the earth shall be gathered against it. 


4 In that day, saith Jehovah, 


I will smite every horse with consternation, 


And his rider with madness ; 


But upon the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, 

While I will smite every horse of the people with blindness. 
5 And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart, 

My strength is the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 

Through Jehovah of hosts their God. 


plete failure, as must be obvious to any 
one who will take the trouble to consult 
the Concordance. ‘The second part of 
the verse has occasioned no small per- 
plexity to interpreters. The chief diffi- 
culty is created by the position of the 
preposition %y in the phrase ba‘ 
nants. The Targ., Jerome, Kim- 
chi, Drusius, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Mau- 
rer, and Ewald, suppose the meaning 
to be, that the inhabitants of Judah 
would be compelled to join the enemies 
in the attack upon Jerusalem, and with 
them share in the punishment ; making 
bza-52 the nominative to m-n7. But 
this interpretation ill suits the context, 
in the whole of which Judah is repre- 
sented as triumphant, and not as placed 
in the degrading position of auxiliaries 
in a war against its own capital. I con- 
sider the preposition to be here used for 
the purpose of conveying the idea of 
addition or accompaniment, so that, con- 
necting Judah with Jerusalem, it repre- 
sents the former, as well as the latter, as 

a cup of intoxication to the invaders, 
See for this use of by , Gen. xxxii. 12; 

Exod. xxxv. 22; Job xxxviii. 32. th 
support of this interpretation, see espec- 
ially ver. 6. The same result will be 
brought out, if we take ty in the accep- 
tation in reference to, with respect to; 


thus: “And with respect to Judah it 
shall also be in the siege;” 7. e. Judah 
shall also be a cup, etc. 

3. Another metaphor employed like 
the preceding to represent the victory 
which the Jews shall obtain over their 
enemies, whose attack will only issue in 
their own injury. Jerome mentions it 
as a custom, which still obtained in his 
time, in Palestine, for young men to try 
their strength by lifting enormous stones 
so high from the ground, as to place 
them upon their heads. It may be from 
such an exercise that the metaphor is 
borrowed. ww describes the cuts or 
gashes made by the sharp edges or cor- 
ners of the stones thus employed. Though 
exposed to the punishment here predicat- 
ed, the nations shall confidently advance 
to the attack. The confederacy against 
the Jews will be universal in its charac- 
ter. 
4. While Jehovah will specially inter- 
pose for the discomfiture of the enemy 
by rendering their cavalry incapable of 
performing any effective service, he will 
exercise the greatest watchfulness over 
his ‘people. 

5. mrs is a substantive, but occurs 
only this onee. The LXX. have read 
Nxvos , and render eiphoouev. The suc- 
cessful resistance offered to the enemy by 








Cuap. XII. 


ZECHARIAH. 


423 


6 In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah 
Like a fire pot among sticks of wood, 
And like a torch of fire in a sheaf, 
And they shall consume all the people around, 
On the right hand and on the left ; 
For Jerusalem shall occupy her place in Jerusalem. 
7 And Jehovah shall deliver the tents of Judah first, 
In order that the splendor of the house of David, 
And the splendor of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
May not be magnified above Judah. 
8 In that day Jehovah shall protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem : 
So that he that stumbleth among them in that day shall be as 


David, 


And the house of David shall be as God, 
As the Angel of Jehovah before them. 


the inhabitants of the metropolis, will 
inspire those of the country with the 
assurance, that, through the Divine aid, 
they shall obtain deliverance. »> , which 
is the Dative of advantage, stands col- 
lectively for 333. ‘T'wo MSS. and the 
Targ. read *aw-d, but no doubt from 
correction. In two other MSS, > is 
omitted. 

6. Jerusalem, in the first instance, 
stands for the inhabitants. After the 
Jews shall have completely routed their 
enemies, they shall dwell in peace in 
their own land, and in the city of their 
ancient solemnities. Houbigant proposes 
to change tw", as occurring the sec- 
ond time, into rsa, but, like most of 
his other conjectures, the change is not 
based upon any authority. One MS., 
the Arab, and the Greek MS. Pachom, 
omit the word altogether. 

7. The inhabitants of the country 
being more exposed to the evils of the 
war than those in the fortified city, shall 
be the first to experience the Divine 
help. Standing in antithesis with the 
capital, their comparative helplessness 
is clearly implied; and the reason for 
the preference being given to them is 
assigned to be the prevention of that 
spirit of pride and self-exaltation, in 


which the inhabitants of a royal metrop- 
olis are too prone toindulge. The read- 
ing m2vNn2, “as at the first,” which is 
found in two MSS., and is the original 
reading of three more, and is favored by 
the LXX., Arab., Syr., and Vulg., is not 
entitled to consideration. 

8. A gracious promise of Divine assis- 
tance, supported, with admirable effect, 
by a beautiful climax. From the cireum- 
stance, that the LXX. have in several 
instances rendered pnts, by angels, 
some interpreters have supposed that the 
term is to be so understood here. The 
more enlightened moderns, however, dis- 
card this signification altogether. See 
Gesenius, Thesaurus Ling. Heb. p. 95, 
and Lee’s Heb. Lex. p. 32. What 
clearly shows that no such idea can 
attach to the word in this place is the 
corrective phrase, nim qed , as the 
Angel of Jehovah, immediately follow- 
ing. The house of David was to be as 
God; yet not as God in the abstract, of 
which no proper conception can be form- 
ed, but as God manifested to men in his 
glorious forthcomings under the ancient 
dispensation, in the Divine Person of the 
Son, who went before the children of 
Israel as their Almighty leader and Pro- 
tector, and to whom are vindicated the 


424 
9 And it shall be in that day, 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XII, 


I will seek to destroy all the nations 


That come against Jerusalem. 


10 And I will pour out upon the house of David, 
And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
A spirit of grace and of gracious supplications, 
And they shall look unto me whom they have pierced, 


sum total of the Divine attributes, See 
Exod. xxxii. 34 ; where the words *>s>12 
J72=> 1 >2 form the type of pant asd 
tnzE>, here adopted by Zechariah. 
Compare also Exod. xxxiii. 15, xxiii. 
21; Is. lxiii. 9; Mal. iii, 1; and my 
Comment. on Zech. i. 11. 

9, sxetn> OPIN» I will seek to de- 
stroy, is spoken more humano, but con- 
veys no idea of weakness in the speaker. 
« Summo studio ero attentus. Calvin. 

10. We have here a clear and definite 
prophecy of the future conversion of the 
Jews, in consequence of a special and 
extraordinary outpouring of the influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing that 
has hitherto taken place in the history 
of that people can be regarded as in any 
degree answering to the description here 
furnished, not even the numerous con- 
versions that accompanied the Apostolic 
preaching on the day of Pentecost, and 
subsequently as narrated in the Acts. 
By nan, spirit, is not meant a gracious 
and prayerful disposition produced in 
the minds of the Jews, but the Divine 
influence itself by which that disposition 
will be created. It is called “spirit” 
by metonomy of cause for effect. 4m and 
fr2s2nn are from the same root, 42h , ¢o 
regard with favor, exercise mercy, etc. 
The verb wa, here used in Hiphil, is 
intensive in signification: to look to, or 
regard with fixed attention, to contem- 
plate with deep interest, and with believ- 
ing expectation. Such is the nature of 
that act of the mind which is exerted 
by every converted sinner, when the Sa- 
viour is spiritually discerned. In the 
case of the Jews there will be a special 
recognition of him as the Messiah whom 


their ancestors crucified, and whose deed 
they have appropriated by their personal 
unbelief and opposition to the truth of 
the Gospel, but whom they will then 
regard as all their salvation and all their 
desire. The textual reading ~>s, in the 
phrase "$x wan, “they shall look to 
Mg,” has been the subject of much con- 
troversy. It is found in most MSS., 
and among these the best, and is sup- 
ported by the LXX., Aq., Symm., 
Theod., Syr., Targ., Vulg., and Arab. 
It is the more difficult reading, and one 
which has always proved revolting to the 
mind of a Jew, as there is no other ante- 
cedent to whom it can be referred than 
nin, JEHOVAH, verses 1 and 4. In 
order to avoid this reference, Kimchi 
gives to the following words, ss mx 
TET the interpretation, because ‘they 
pierced, leaving it undetermined who 
was pierced. But this construction is 
altogether inadmissible, as it deprives 
the verb of its accusative case, which is 
expressed in every other instance in 
which it occurs. It has accordingly been 
condemned by Abenezra, Abarbanel, 
Alschech, and other Rabbins. The ren- 
dering given to sp3 by the LXX. karwp- 
xhoavto, they insulted, has been eagerly 
seized upon by some, especially by Thei- 
ner, Rosenmiiller, Eichhorn, Gesenius, 
De Wette, Winer, and by none more 
than Maurer, who is at great pains to 
prove that, like ap; and 3232, the verb 
“77 is to be taken in the metaphorical 
sense of blaspheming or cursing. Against 
such interpretation it is justly objected 
that this verb, which occurs in ten other 
passages, is never used except in the lit- 
eral acceptation of piercing the body. It 


Cuap. XII. 


ZECHARIAH. 


425 


And they shall lament for him, 
As one lamenteth for an only son, 


And be in bitterness for him, 


As one is in bitterness for a first-born. 


is thus used in chap. xiii. 3, of this very 
book. The same objection lies against 
the metaphorical sense of grieving or 
provoking, which even Calvin adopted, 
thougly he admits that the prophecy was 
literally fulfilled in Christ. 

That the passage has a Messianic ref- 
erence has been admitted both by the 
ancient and the more modern Jews. In 
the Gemara of Jerusalem, written some- 
time in the third century, we read : y>=n 
mew Se ITbom mT ASN IN PAN 
san as? $v ombon mr wes mao. 
Two opinions are expressed: one states 
that they mourned on account of Messiah, 
and another that they mourned on account 
of corrupt nature. A similar passage 
occurs in the Gemara of Babylon, ‘Tract 
Succoth, fol. 52, col. 1, in which the 
words of Zechariah are cited, after the 
declaration respecting the mourning: 
Fon 42 men $y sant yand soba 
aanow. May he be in peace who refers 
it to Messiah the son of Joseph, who shall 
be slain. See also the commentaries of 
Abarbanel and Abenezra, who give the 
same interpretation, as also does the Tal- 
kut Chasdash, fol. 24: -pa-w -ams 7D 


N29 "SD MAGN FO CD Hw SIA mI 
77 42 Pow ww wt. For after 


they have pierced Jonah, who is Messiah 
the son of Joseph, then David will come, 
Messiah the son of David. UHengsten- 
berg’s Christol. vol. iii. p. 222. The 
fiction of two Messiahs, one the son of 
Joseph, who should suffer and die, and 
another the son of David, who should 
prove victorious and reign forever, was 
invented purely with a view to reconcile 
those passages which describe the Mes- 
siah now as suffering, and now as reign- 
ing in glory, and thus to evade the Chris- 
tian application of them to our Saviour. 

‘It only remains to inquire how the 
Jews, who did not acquiesce in the 


54 


interpretation adopted by Kimchi, have 
endeavored to get rid of the pronominal 
reference in "$s. ‘To this the reply is: 
By changing the reading into .}y, 
which, however, they did not at first 
venture to insert into the text, but merely 
gave it as the Keri, or corrected reading 
in the margin, This Keri, however, is 
only found in sixteen of Kennicott’s and 
De Rossi’s MSS.; but at length a more 
daring step was taken by receiving it 
into the text itself, in which it is found 
in thirty-four of Kennicott’s MSS., orig- 
inally in three more, perhaps in five 
others, and now by correction in six ; in 
six of De Rossi’s own, in two more 
originally, now in five others, and in 
twenty collated by him in other libra- 
ries. Of this insertion a serious com- 
plaint is made by Raymundus Martini, 
in his Pugio Fidei, p. 411, Leipsic, 1687, 
fol. And so ashamed have Lipmann, 
Abarbanel, and other Rabbins been of it, 
that they pass it entirely by in their con- 
troversies with the Christians, or candidly 
acknowledge that it is not to be regarded 
as forming any part of the sacred text. 
It is much to be regretted, that while it 
has been rejected by the best Jewish and 
Christian critics, the most free-thinking 
of the German school not excepted, it 
should have been adopted by Newcome 
and Boothroyd, who accordingly trans- 
late: “They shall look unto Him whom 
they have pierced.” It is true, they 
may seem to have the sanction of the 
Evangelist John, who quotes the passage 
thus: “Opovra eis dv éekexévrnoay, xix. 
37, and employs the words, xa) ofriwes 
aitrév ekexéevtnoay, Rev. i. 7; but it must 
be obvious that he gives the prophecy 
historically, as having been literally ful- 
filled in Jesus of Nazareth, without de- 
signing to exhibit the exact wording of 
the prophet. See on Zech. xi. 12, 13. 


426 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XIL. 


11 In that day there shall be great lamentation in Jerusalem, 
As the lamentation of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon, 
12 And the land shall lament, every family apart ; 
The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart ; 
The family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart ; 
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart ; 
The family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart ; 


14 All the families that are left, 


Every family apart, and their wives apart. 


It might be supposed that *>s being the 
true reading, “>, and not m9, would 
be required in the foliowing sentence; 
but the use of the expletive phrase mx 
=e, necessarily led to the change of 
construction. 2" is the infinitive of 
Hiphil, which carries forward the de- 
scription instead of the finite form. It 
is here used intransitively; the root is 
=772. The verb “£0 signifies primarily 
to beat ; then, as a sign of intense grief, 
to smite or beat the breast. There being 
usually great wailing and lamentation 
connected with such significant action in 
the East, it is also used to denote the 
noise made by mourners. The instances 
selected for illustration are of the most 
tender and touching kind. 

11. To represent the greatness and 
universality of the lamentation which 
he describes, the prophet compares it 
to the greatest ever known among the 
Jews, viz. that which took place on the 
death of the excellent king Josiah, the 
result of the wound which he received 
at Hadad-rimmon. 2 Kings xxiii. 29; 
2 Chron, xxxv. 23—25. See also the 
Lamentations of Jeremiah, composed on 
the occasion. Hadad-rimmon was the 
name of a place in the great plain of 
Esdraelon, near Megiddo, and was prob- 
ably so called after the Syrian idol of 


that name. In the time of Jerome it 
was called Maximianopolis. 

12—14. In these verses the universal 
character of the mourning is described, 
while, at the same time, its particular 
and individual features are likewise set 
forth. ‘To show that all will be the sub- 
jects of it, the prophet begins with the 
descendants of David, and then proceeds 
to those of the priests, on account of the 
influence which their example would 
have on the rest of the people. Instead 
of Shimei, the LXX. have Sued, sup- 
posing that a tribal division was in- 
tended; and some have thought that 
yaw, Shammua, one of the sons of 
David, 2 Sam. v. 14, is meant; but it is 
more natural to regard the individual as 
one of the sons of Levi, who is classed 
along with that patriarch, just as Na- 
than, one of the sons of David, is with 
him, ver. 12. For »y13, Shimet, see 
Numb. iii. 18, 21, in which latter verse 
“youn mmewn, the family of the Shi- 
meites, occurs just as in Zechariah. It 
is implied in the last verse, that some 
families shall have become extinct at the 


period referred to. Themen and women . 


mourning apart has reference to the Jew- 
ish custom, according to which not only 
did the females dwell in separate apart- 
ments from the males, but also worship- 
ped separately. 


Cuap. XIII. 


ZECHARIAH. 


427 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Tus chapter contains a continuation of the prophecy respecting the future conversion of 
the Jews, ver. 1; predictions relating to the entire abolition of idolatry and false doctrine, 
2—6; a resumption of the subject of the Messiah’s sufferings, 7; and an account of the 
destruction of the greater part of the Jews during the Roman war, the preservation of 


the rest, and their ultimate restoration, 8, 9. 





1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened 
To the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 


For guilt and for uncleanness. 


2 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
I will cut off the names of the idols from the earth ; 
And they shall not be remembered any more. 
And I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit 


To pass away from the earth. 


1. This verse is intimately connected 
with the subject of the concluding verses 
of the preceding chapter. It is designed 
to relieve the anxious and troubled minds 
of the penitents there described. “4p, 
a well, or fountain, from “3p, to dig ; 
not, perhaps, without reference to chap. 
xii, 10. mewn, guilt, from son, fo 
miss a mark or way, to sin; hence the 
substantive comes to signify the guzlt 
contracted by sinning, the punishment 
to which it exposes the transgressor, and 
a sin offering, for the purpose of making 
expiation. That it is here to be taken 
in the sense of gui/t, is shown by the 
accompanying term 772, uncleanness, 
or the impurity contracted by sin. That 
moral, and not ceremonial guilt and pol- 
lution are intended, the circumstances 
of the case evince; and the Jews are 
taught, that their deliverance from these 
is not to be effected by the Levitical 
sacrifices and purifications, but by the 
cleansing influence flowing from the 
death of the Messiah. See Heb. ix. 
13, 14; 1 Johni. 7. The verse exhibits 
the two grand doctrines of the gospel : 
justification and sanctification. The 


fountain here spoken of was opened when 
the Redeemer presented his sacrifice on 
the cross ; but the Jews, with compara- 
tively few exceptions, after the apos- 
tolic age, have shut it against them- 
selves by their impenitence and unbelief. 
When, however, these shall be removed 
by the outpouring of Divine influence, 
promised, chap. xii. 10, they shall find 
it mrp, opened, full, and overflowing 
with all spiritual blessings. 

2. As no idolatry has existed among 
the Jews since their return from Babylon, 
and it is in the highest degree improbable 
that they will ever fall into it again, 
yrs should not be rendered, as in our 
common version, the land, but the earth ; 
so that this and the following verses de- 
scribe the total extinction of that horrible 
evil, and all the other systems of supersti- 
tion and false religion which now impose 
upon the human family, together with 
those who teach and defend them. By 
mNeen man, the spirit of impurity, is 
meant a person pretending to inspiration, 
and in league with Satan, the god of this 
world, to whom, in contradistinction to 
wtPm ran, the spirit of holiness, the 


428 


ZECHARIAH. 


CHAP. 


3 So that should any one still prophesy, 
His father and his mother — his parents 
Shall say to him, Thou shalt not live; 
For thou speakest falsehood in the name of Jehovah; 
And his father and his mother — his parents 
Shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. 


4 And it shall be in that day, 


That the prophets shall be ashamed, ' 
Every one of his vision, when he prophesieth ; 
And they shall not wear a hairy garment to deceive. 


5 But each shall say, I am not a prophet, 


I am a tiller of the ground ; 


For I have been in a state of slavery from my youth. 


6 Then shall it be said to him, 


What are these wounds in thy hands? 


And he will say, 


Those with which I have been wounded in the house of my 


friends, 


designation may well be applied. Com- 
pare mvedua midwvos, Acts xvi. 16; 7d 
avedua Tis wAdvns, 1 John, iv. 6; and 
especially, kal é« 70d orduaros Tov evdo- 
mpodhrov mvevuara tpla axdSapta, Rev. 
xvi. 13. 

3. There is in this verse a recognition 
of the law against those who seduced 
others to idolatry, Deut. xiii. 6—11. 
p-id4, parents. 747, signifies both to 
beget, and to bear children. The evil 
here denounced will not be connived at 
even by the nearest relatives. The ten- 
derest parental feelings shall give place 
to the infliction of merited punishment. 

4,5. The shame with which false 
teachers shall be covered is here set 
forth. The hairy mantle, the garb of 
the ancient prophets, and that of certain 
orders of monks still, which is assumed 
in order to inspire the multitude with 
an impression of the superior sanctity 
of those by whom they are worn, shall 
be thrown aside, as dangerous to appear 
in. The false prophets wished to pass 
off as those who had really been invested 
with a Divine commission. The form 
of the infinitive {rixaon, is according 


to the analogy of verbs in “p+. To the 
singular “731, at the beginning of ver. 
5, each of the prophets previously men- 
tioned is the nominative. *:2>m, lit. 
one sold me as a slave, but taken in con- 
nection with the following, "= 32, 
from my youth, it signifies to be held in 
a state of slavery, to be a slave. The 
speaker declares that he had always been 
in a condition of life with which the 
exercise of the prophetic office was alto- 
gether incompatible, t+, which some 
translators have preposterously retained 
as the proper name, Adam, is here used 
impersonally, precisely as the German 
man, and is best rendered into English by 
the passive of the accompanying verb. 

6. This verse is commonly applied to 
the sufferings of Christ, but without any 
further ground than its mere proximity 
to that which follows, in which he and 
his sufferings are clearly predicted. In 
no tolerable sense could the Jews be 
called his psamy, lovers, or friends ; 
on the contrary, they hated both him 
and his Father. The words connect with 
the preceding thus: The false prophet, 
though he might rid himself of his idol- 


Cuap. XIII. 


ZECHARIAH. 


429 


7 Awake, O sword! against my shepherd, 
And against the man who is united to me, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts: 


atrous vestments, would not be able to 
efface the marks that had been made 
on his hands in honor of the idol which 
he served, yet as it was customary to 
cut and maim the body, especially the 
hand, in token of grief for departed rel- 
atives, he might hope to escape detection 
by attributing his scars to the latter 
cause. 

7. Various opinions have been formed 
respecting the person here referred to, 
Calvin thought he was Zechariah him- 
self, as representative of all the prophets, 
and that the prophecy referred only in- 
directly to Christ. Grotius, Eichhorn, 
Bauer, and Jahn, apply it to Judas Mac- 
cabeus ; Maurer to Jehoiakim ; Ewald to 
Pekah; Hitzig to the pretended prophets 
spoken of in the preceding verses! The 
only satisfactory solution of the question 
is that which regards the words as di- 
rectly and exclusively prophetic of the 
person and sufferings of the Messiah. 
This solution is induced not only by our 
Saviour’s express appropriation of them 
to himself, Matt. xxvi. 31, but also by 
the manifest identity of the subject 
treated with that exhibited chap. xi, 4, 
7, 10—14. The same subject there 
handled is resumed, and treated, just as 
it is there, in connection with the down- 
fall of the Jewish state. The prophecy 
contained in this and the following verses 
has no coherence with what immediately 
precedes, and was evidently delivered 
upon a different occasion. A new sec- 
tion may, therefore, be considered as 
commencing here, though it only extends 
to chap. xiv. 5. The language employed 
is altogether peculiar. Not only is the 
Messiah designated the Shepherd of 
Jehovah, to indicate the relation in 
which he stood to the Father in the 
economy of redemption, but he is de- 
scribed as \mncy 722, the man of his 
union; ¢. e. conjoined or closely united 
to him. The term translated man, is 


not that usually employed in Hebrew, 
which in such construction would merely 
be idiomatic, but "24, @ strong, or 
mighty man, one who is such by way of 
eminence. 17729 is used elsewhere only 
in the Pentateuch, namely, in Lev. vy. 
21, xviii. 20, xix. 11, 15, 17, xxiv. 19, 
xxv. 14, 15, 17; in all which passages 
it is employed to denote persons who 
were united together under common 
laws, for the enjoyment of common 
rights and privileges. It is derived 
from my, cognate with pry, fo bind, 
bind together, unite in society; Arab. 


» communis fuit, communem fecit 


rem: hence the derivates py, a people, 
z. e. those united for their common inter- 
terest; m9, conjunction, communion, 
association ; ‘py , the conjunction with, 
indicating accompaniment, society. The 
renderings of the versions vary. LXX. 
tvdpa woAitny mov. Aq. &vdpa ciuovadv 
pov. Symm. &vdpa tod Aaovd pov. 


o 7 
Theod. &yvdpa mAnatov pov. Syr. | 2 
° 
aha}; the man my friend. Targ. 


mod “QTT MIMS wIMIAN Niuds, the 
ruler his companion, his associate who is 
like him. Vulg. virum coherentem mihi. 
Leo Juda, virum coequalem mihi. Heng- 
stenberg, @ man, my nearest relation. 
Burger, mon confident. De Wette, 
Den Mann metnes Geichen, tre 
man my equal, Arnheim, Dem Sanne, 
Den ich mir gugesellt, the man whom 
I have associated with myself. The two 
last are the more remarkable, coming, as 
they do, the one from a Rationalist, and 
the other from a Jew. The idea expres- 
sed by the latter I conceive to be pre- 
cisely what was intended by the Holy 
Spirit, by whom the words were indited. 
But of whom can this association be 
predicated, except of Him whose human 


430 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XIIL 


Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, 
But I will turn back my hand upon the little ones. 
g And it shall be that in all the land, 


Saith Jehovah, 


Two parts therein shall be cut off and expire, 
But the third part shall be left in it. 
9 And I will cause the third part to go through the fire, 


nature was assumed into the most inti- 
mate and perfect union with the Divine 
--IMMANUEL, who was one with the 
Father, and who could say, “ He that 
hath seen me, hath seen the Father! 
The union or association is that of the 
two natures, and not that of the Divine 
nature or substance. This the use of the 
word 433, man, clearly proves. To the 
objection, that the words cannot be ap- 
plied to our Saviour, since he was not 
cut off by a sword, it has been sufficiently 
replied, that 24, sword, is here used 
figuratively for any means of taking 
away human life, just as in Exod. v. 21; 
2 Sam. xii. 9, compared with 2 Sam. xi. 
24, That the wicked Jews are intended, 
see Ps. xvii. 13, where the wicked are 
called the sword of Jehovah. They are 
regarded as in a state of sleep or inac- 
tivity, and are summoned to perpetrate 
the awful deed. According to an idiom 
common in the Hebrew prophets, the 
imperative is used instead of the future, 
in order to express with greater force the 
certainty of the event. See my note on 
Is. vi. 10. For a parallel instance of the 
personification of the sword, see Jer, 
xlvii. 6,7. As ah is feminine, and yn 
masculine, Hitzig ‘would refer the latter 
to the human agent handling the sword, 
but the irregularity in point of gender is 
sufficiently accounted for by the remote- 
ness of the antecedent. Fi» smite, is 
quoted, Matt. xxvi. 31, asif it were qx, 
I will smite, the first person singular of 
the future in Hiphil. There is no diver- 
sity of reading in the Hebrew MSS., but 
the Ald. and Pachom. MSS. of the 
LXX, read wardtov, instead of rardtw, 
which the =e Matthew and Mark . 


have copied. The difference is unimpor- 
tant, yet there seems to be more propriety 
in the reading 57 , with reference to the 
sword addressed in the preceding clause, 
than in connecting this verb, whatever 
may be supposed to have been its form, 
with what follows in the verse. Com- 
paring the present verse with chap. xi. 
4, 7, and especially with what is pre- 
dicted in the two following verses of the 
present chapter, in which the same sub- 
ject is continued, it is evident the 4xx, 
sheep, or flock, cannot be restricted to the 
disciples of Christ. The circumstances, 
however, in reference to which our Sa- 
viour appropriated the prophecy, afforded 
a striking type of the dispersion of the 
Jewish people, which is that intended by 
Zechariah. The disciples as Jews formed 
part of the flock which the good shep- 
herd was commissioned to feed, but they, 
together with the Jewish Christians, con- 
verted by their ministry, who formed the 
first church at Jerusalem, were the 
bist] , little ones, on whom the Lord 
promises to turn back his hand, in 
order to protect them in the time of 
calamity. That the phrase $y 77 a-un, 
to turn, or turn back the hand, upon any 
one, is used in a good as well as in a bad 
sense, see on Is. i. 25. 

8, 9. In these verses are predicted the 
destruction of two-thirds of the inhabi- 
tants of Judea by the Roman arms, and 
by the famine and pestilence, the usual 
concomitants of war in the East, and 
the preservation of the remaining third 
part, which, after having been submitted 
to very trying and afflictive processes, 
should come forth out of the furnace a 
regenerated and spiritual people. The 


Cuap. XIV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


431 


And will refine them as silver is refined, 
And will try them as gold is tried ; 
It shall invoke my name, and I will answer it, 


I will say, It is my people; 


And it shall say, Jehovah is my God. 


former was fulfilled not only during what 
is commonly called the Jewish war, but 
also, to a fearful extent, under more than 
one of the succeeding emperors; the 
processes pointed. at in the latter have 
been more or less carried forward ever 


since, but are, it is to be hoped, soon to 
terminate in the conversion of the Jews 
to God. Then shall they enter into a 
new relation to him, according to the 
terms of the better covenant, Jer. xxxi. 
33; Heb. viii. 10, 11. 





CHAPTER XIV. 


In the first two verses of this chapter the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the 
calamities consequent upon that event are set forth; after which the destruction of the 
forces composing the hostile army is predicted, 8. A promise of special interposition in 
behalf of the people of God is then given, by which effectual provision is made for their 
escape, 4,5. The prophet next describes a period of great calamity, which is to give place 
to one of unmixed and perennial happiness, 6,7; when the means of spiritual life and 
enjoyment shall be universal and continual, 8; and the true God the exclusive object of 
obedience and worship, 9; and while every barrier to the free intercourse of Christians 
throughout the world shall be removed, special honor will be conceded to Jerusalem as 
the metropolis of converted Israel, 10, 11. The dreadful judgments to be inflicted on 
their final enemies, and the complete discomfiture of these enemies, are depicted, 12—15: 
after which follow predictions respecting an annual visit which all the nations shall pay 
to Jerusalem, 16; the punishment of those which neglect to perform it, 17—19; and the 
universally holy character which shall distinguish her inhabitants, their occupations and 
services, 20, 21. 





1  Bernotp the day of Jehovah cometh, 
And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 
2 For I will collect all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, 


1. For the phraseology min-> 2 th, 
comp. Is, xxii. 5. The criticism of Heng- 
stenberg, who denies that it is equivalent 
to min= D497 82, is without any founda- 
tion. By the day of Jehovah is meant 
the period of the infliction of judgment. 
See, in reference to the same event which 
is here predicted, Joel ii. 31, iii. 14; Mal. 
iv. 1, 5. By the spoil of Jerusalem is 


meant all that her inhabitants had accu- 
mulated, and which would be fit spoil 
for the enemy, especially the treasures of 
the temple. Notwithstanding all that 
was consumed by fire, the plunder ob- 
tained by the Romans was so great, that 
gold fell in Syria to half its former value, 

2. All the nations here mean soldiers 
from all the different nations forming 


432 
And the city shall be taken, 


ZECHARIAH. , 


Cuapr. XIV. 


And the houses plundered, and the women ravished ; 
And half the city shall go forth into captivity, 
But the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 


And fight with those nations, 
As in the day when he fought 
In the day of battle. 


And Jehovah shall go forth, 


And his feet shall stand in that day 


On the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east ; 
And the mount of Olives shall be split in its midst, 
Toward the east and toward the west, 


Into a very great valley ; 


Half of the mountain shall recede towards the north, 
And half of it towards the south. 


And ye shall flee to the valley of my mountains, 


For the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal ; 
Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled from the earthquake, 
In the days of Uzziah, king of Judah ; 


the Roman empire, which composed the 
army of Titus. The verse contains a 
fearful description of the capture of 
Jerusalem under the command of that 
general. After its destruction, the more 
distinguished, handsome, and able-bodied 
Jews were sold into slavery, or con- 
demned to work in the mines; but the 
poorer and more contemptible sort were 
permitted to remain among the ruins. 
As usual, where 7252%m occurs in the 
text the Keri has =2359, for the sake 
of euphemism. The latter word has 
found its way into a great many MSS. 

3. The Roman power was doomed in 
its turn to destruction. Formidable as 
it might appear, Jehovah would in his 
providence overthrow it, as he had done 
the enemies of his people in former ages. 
Comp. Exod, xiv. 14, xv. 3, ete. 

4, 5. These verses convey, in language 
of the most beautiful poetical imagery, 
the assurance of the effectual means ot 
escape that should be provided for the 
truly pious. We accordingly learn from 
Eusebius, that on the breaking out of 
the Jewish war, the Christian church at 


Jerusalem, in obedience to the warning 
of our Saviour, Matt. xxiv. 16, fled to 
Pella, a city beyond Jordan, where they 
lived in safety. As the mount of Olives 
lay in their way, it is represented as 
cleaving into two halves, in order to. 
make a passage for them. Comp. chap. 
iv. 7. "=n is not to be considered as the 
less usual form of the masculine plural, 
but as a proper plural with the pronom- 
inal affix. Jehovah calls them Ais, be- 
cause he had formed them, by cleaving 
Olivet into two. The valley lay between 
them. xs was the proper name of a 
place, close to one of the gates on the 
east side of Jerusalem, to which the cleft 
cr valley was to extend westward, so as 
at once to admit those who should flee 
from the enemy. Most commentators 
think of some locality to the east of the 
mount of Olives, but far less aptly. The 
word properly signifies to join or be 
Joined to, be at the side, near. Its prox- 
imity to the city must have originated 
the name. For entz5, ye shall flee, we 
find the reading pno:1, shall be stopped 
up, in four of De Rossi’s MSS. aud in 


‘ 


Cuap. XIV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


433 


For Jehovah my God shall come, 
And all the holy ones with thee. 


6 And it shall be in that day 


That there shall not be the light of the precious orbs, 


But condensed darkness. 
7 But there shall be one day, 


the margin of Bomberg’s Hebrew Bible; 
but, though supported by the LXX., 
Arab., Targ., Symm., and the other 
Greek interpreters, it is utterly to be re- 
jected, as unsuited to the connection. 
The very opposite of what would thus be 
expressed, is required. Yet it is adopted 
by Blayney and Boothroyd! We have 
nothing in Scripture relative to the earth- 
quake here referred to except as a date, 
Amos i. 1. Instead of 122, with thee, 
nearly forty MSS, and all the versions 
read 4133, with him; and instead of 
pep , the holy ones, one MS., the Syr., 
Arab., and Targ., read vinp, his holy 
ones. ‘To refer 5:29, with the Rabbins, 
Drusius, and Blayney, to Jerusalem, is 
quite inadmissible, since such construc- 
tion affords no tolerable sense. The 
change of person was occasioned by a 
sudden transition in the mind of the 
prophet to the Lord, whom he addresses 
as present. For the application of this 
part of the prophecy, compare the par- 
allel prediction of our Lord himself, Matt. 
xxiv. 30, 31, where those whom Zecha- 
riah Gesiepates Dery, » holy ones, are 
called robs ayyéAous aitod. That a fu- 
ture personal and pre-millennial advent 
of the Redeemer is here taught, I cannot 
find. 

6. Now follows the prediction of a 
period of unmitigated calamity, which 
may be regarded as comprehending the 
long centuries of oppression, cruelty, 
mockery, and scorn, to which the Jews 
have been subjected ever since the de- 
struction of Jerusalem. It has also, for 
the most part, been a period during which 
the gross darkness of superstition and 
delusion has reigned over the land of 
their fathers, 4*xEp 9m‘ p> have been 


55 


variously rendered and _ interpreted. 
LXX. Pixos cal mdyos. Vulg. frigus et 
gelu. Syr. 1 > S bags iI , cold 
and ice. Thus also Maurer, and several 
other moderns. But whatever connec- 
tion there may be between the absence 
of light and the production of cold and 
ice in the depth of winter, the contrast 
is not so natural as that between light 
and darkness. Besides, nap" cannot 
with any show of truth be rendered cold. 
It is an adjective plural from the root 
aye : , to be precious, valuable, costly. The 
idea of cold rests upon no better author- 
ity than a mere Rabbinical conjecture 
embodied in the Keri . Prov, xvii. 27, 
which exhibits p44 “>, instead of => rh, 

mam, the proper and gay term suitable 
in such connection. That m4nz7 may 
fitly be understood as designating the 
celestial luminaries, whence we obtain 
what, in common parlance, we call «the 
precious light of heaven,” will appear on 
comparing Job xxxi. 26, where the moon 
is described as 54m “p>, walking pre- 
ciously or splendidly across the heavens. 
With Prof. Lee, (Heb. Lex. p. §33,) I 
read m4ap> a4 in construction, placing 
the accent on the latter of the two words, 
instead of retaining it over the former. 
ViNEp properly signifies congelation, con- 
densation, excessive density, from RED, 
to draw together, contract, become thick, 
dense, and the like. Blayney renders, 
thick fog. ‘The textual reading j:NE>°, 
they shall withdraw themselves, is inferior 
to that of the Keri y4s=7), which is 
found in the text of one hundred and 
thirty-four of Kennicott’s MSS., and in 
twenty-two more originally, in nine of 


De Rossi's Spanish MSS., which are 


434 ZECHARIAH. 


(It is known to Jehovah), 


Cuap. XIV. 


When it shall not be day and night ; 
For at the time of the evening Gasca shall be light. 


g And it shall be in that day 


That living waters shall proceed from Jerusalem, 
Half of them to the Eastern sea, 

And half of them to the Western sea; 

In summer and in winter shall it be. 


reckoned the best in the Soncin., Brix- 
ian, and Complutensian editions, and in 
Machzors of the fifteenth and~sixteenth 
centuries. None of the ancient versions 
employ a verb. 

7. Another period is here predicted, 
but one entirely different from the pre- 
ceding —a day altogether unique, ph 
“nx, one peculiar day, the only one of 
its kind. See Gesenius in ans, No. 5. 
Its peculiarity is to consist in the absence 
of the alternations of day and night. 
It is to be all day—a period of entire 
freedom from war, oppression and other 
outward evils which induce affliction 
and wretchedness, interrupt the peace of 
the church, and prevent the spread of 
truth and righteousness, Nvé yap ovdK 
gorau éxet, Rev. xxii. 25. aqy—nry , the 
time of the evening, does not refer to the 
close of the happy period just described, 
but to that of the preceding period of 
afflictive darkness. At the very time 
when a dark and gloomy day is expected 
to give way to a night of still greater 
darkness and obscurity, light shall sud- 
denly break forth, the light of the one 
long day, which is to be interrupted by 
no night. That this period is that of the 
Millennium, or the thousand years, the 
circumstances of which are described 
Rev. xx. 83—7, I cannot entertain a 
doubt. The time of its commencement 
has been variously but fruitlessly calcu- 
lated. The knowledge of it the Father 
hath reserved in his own power. “It is 
known to Jehovah,” and, by implication, 
to him alone. 

8. Drm on, Kving, i. e. running, 
perennial, refreshing, and salubrious wa- 


ter, in opposition to that which is stag- 
nant and noxious, "37pm mn, the 
Eastern sea, i. e. the Asphalltitic Las, : 
and j;7487 pi, the Western sea, i. e, 
the Mediterranean ; ; so called because 
when a person resident at Jerusalem 
faces the East, which is the primary 
point of the horizon with the Orientals, 
the Dead Sea is before him, (*:4%7p), 
and the Mediterranean (44-43) behind 
him. The more important portions of 
the globe lying to the east and west of 
Jerusalem, there is an obvious propriety 
in the selection of these two directions. 
The declaration that these waters are to 
flow 5.25 V7 —2» is expressive of con- 
stancy. They shall neither be dried up 
by the heat of summer, nor congealed 
by the frost of winter. The LXX. have 
év Séper kad év Zaps, “in summer and in 
spring,” which is to be accounted for on 
the ground that what was winter in more 
northerly regions, was spring in Egypt, 
in which country that version was made. 
In the figurative language of Scripture, 
water is not only used as an emblem of 
purification, but also for the purpose of 
representing the means of spiritual life, 
refreshment, and fertility —the doctrines 
and ordinances of the gospel. The de- 
scendants of Abraham, restored to their 
own land, and become his children in the 
faith, will go forth, full of zeal and spir- 
itual activity, as missionaries to other na- 
tions, to promote revivals in the churches 
of Christ by rehearsing what great things 
God hath done for them, and to carry on 
the work of conversion among those na- 
tions and tribes that shall not then have 
been turned to the Lord. 


—_——s a 


CO 


Cuap. XIV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


439 


9 And Jehovah shall become king over all the earth ; 
In that day Jehovah alone shall be, 


And his name alone. 


10 And all the earth shall be changed 
As it were into the plain from Geba to Rimmon, 


South of Jerusalem; ° 
And she shall be exalted, 


And be inhabited in her place, 


From the gate of Benjamin 


To the place of the former gate, 


To the gate of the corners ; 


And from the tower of Hananeel 


To the king’s wine-vats. 


9. In consequence of the universal 
spread of the Gospel, the multiplicity of 
heathen gods will be swept away from 
the face of the earth, the unity of Jeho- 
vah universally acknowledged, and the 
glorious harmony of those attributes 
which constitute his one Divine charac- 
ter (4105 , his name) clearly discovered, 
and heartily adored. According to the 
ordinary mode of translating the words 
ams asa ames myn? mint, there shall 
be one Lord and his name one, they may 
seem clogged with little or no difficulty, 
as the true God is thus set forth in oppo- 
sition to the “gods many and lords 
many’ of the heathen; but we have 
only to introduce the incommunicable 
name JEHOVAH into.the translation when 
the greatest incongruity at once appears. 
If we then render, there shall be one Je- 
hovah, the conclusion is inevitable, that 
previous to the predicted period, there 
must have existed more Jehovahs than 
one. Or, if we render, Jehovah shall be 
one, we make the passage teach either 
that Jehovah was not one before, or, that 
he will no longer be three, or triune — 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the 
undivided unity of the Godhead. All 
ambiguity, however, will at once be re- 
moved, if sms be taken adverbially, and 
rendered only, alone, or the like. And 
thus I conceive it must be rendered in 
the primary article of the inspired creed 


of the Hebrews: thx mint isnts nin, 
Jenovan is our God, JeHovan alone. 
The doctrine, therefore, taught in the 
present verse is simply that Jehovah shall 
be the only existing object of religious 
worship and obedience, and no charac- 
teristics but his be any longer recognized 
as divine. 

10, 11. These verses intimate that 
every obstruction shall be removed which 
prevents the free and full flow of the 
living waters throughout the world. 
What is high shall be levelled, and what 
is low shall be elevated. This idea was 
suggested by the natural impossibility of 
water flowing in a westerly direction from 
Jerusalem to the Mediterranean, owing 
to the hilly country which intervenes. 
In 35° we have a rather unusual sig- 
nification of 330, to be turned, i. e. 
changed. The verb 47 is ordinarily 
used to express what is here intended. 
922, Geba, was a Levitical city in the 
tribe of Benjamin, near to Gibeah, on 
the northern border of the kingdom of 
Judah. 44:5, Rimmon, was a town in 
the tribe of Simeon, in the south of Pal- 
estine, and to be distinguished from the 
rock Rimmon, to the north-east of Mich- 
mash. =a zn, the Arabah, is the level 
or plain of the Jordan, extending from 
the lake of Tiberias to the Elanitic gulf, 
though in the present day this name is 
only applied to that part of it which lies 


436 
11 And they shall dwell in her, 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XIV. 


And there shall be no more curse, 
And Jerusalem shall dwell in safety. 


12 


And this shall be the plague 


With which Jehovah will plague all the people 

That shall fight against Jerusalem ; 

Their flesh shall consume away 

While they stand upon their feet, 

And their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, 
And their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. 


13 And it shall be in that day 


That there shall be great confusion from Jehovah among them, 
So that each shall seize the hand of another, 
And his hand shall be raised against the hand of another; 


14 


And Judah also shall fight in Jerusalem, 


And the wealth of all the nations around shall be collected, 
Gold, and silver, and garments, in great abundance. 


15 


And the plague of the horses, 


The mules, the camels, and the asses, 
And all the cattle which shall be in those camps, 


Shall be even as this plague. 


16 And it shall be 

to the south of the Dead Sea. The nom- 
inative to mayy and nI97, isnot yasn, 
but pd335", ‘immediately ‘eeepiing) For 
the orthography of m8 » comp. Hos. x. 

14, and other passages ‘in which the x is 
inserted as a mater lectionis. Great un- 
certainty exists relative to the exact posi- 
tion of some of the places here mentioned. 
pn is used as in Mal. iii. 24, in the ac- 
ceptation, curse, LXX. dvdSeua. Comp. 
mav Karavddeua ovn ora &r1, Rev. xxii. 3. 
There will be no more any civil or na- 
tional punishments inflicted on account 
of sin, these having been rendered unnec- 
essary by the universal prevalence of 
righteousness and truth. 

12--15. The hostile powers whose pun- 
ishment is here denounced are those which 
shall form the great final confederacy. 
Com. Is. lix. 18; Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix.; 
Rev. xix. The representation of the 
punishment is the most horrible that can 
be imagined — a living skeleton, rapidly 


wasting away! From what is stated 
ver. 14, it appears that the Jews (m747", 
Judah), shall not only defend themselves 
at Jerusalem, but make a_ successful 
attack upon the enemy. 3 tr>:, when 
used in reference to place, signifies to 
fight at or im such place. LXX. zap- 
ardtera év. “lepovoadqw. 52303 — 
vemb2, Jud. v. 19. The collection of. 
the wealth of the surrounding nations, 
refers to the gathering of the rich spoil 
of the contingents furnished by them to 
compose the hostile army. The entire 
encampments of the enemy, including 
the cavalry and beasts of burden, were 
all to share in the awful catastrophe. 
Whether God will employ the plague 
and other destructive diseases for the 
annihilation of the enemies of his peo- 
ple, time must show. The genitive in 
myn? mgamg , is that of cause, a conster- 
nation sent or produced by Jehovah. 
16—18. m3g3 m2y "772, lit. from the 


Cuap. XIV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


437 


That the whole residue of all the nations 
That shall come up against Jerusalem, 


Shall go up from year to year 


To worship the king, Jehovah of hosts, 

And to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 
17 And it shall be that those who go not up 

Of the families of the earth to Jerusalem, 


sufficiency of a year in a year, i. e. 
when time has fully satisfied the claims 
of one year and enters upon another. It 
is only an idiomatic mode of expressing 
Srom year to year, or annually. What 
is here predicted is expressly restricted to 
the particular nations which shall have 
engaged in the last great attack upon 
the Jews. And, though the language 
of the following verse may appear to be 
more general, yet the circumstances of 
the context require the restriction to be 
carried forward beyond the limits of the 
present. Still, however, even with this 
restriction, the prophecy cannot, without 
manifest absurdity, be interpreted of the 
totality of the inhabitants of the nations 
in question. Let steam vessels and rail- 
roads be multiplied to any imaginable 
extent, the idea of the possibility of con- 
veying such immense numbers to Pales- 
tine cannot be entertained. Or, suppos- 
ing them to have been conveyed thither, 
few of them would after aJl have an 
opportunity of worshipping at Jerusalem 
during the short period allotted for the 
Feast of Tabernacles. Not only would 
the country be too small to contain their 
encampments, and to furnish them with 
necessary provisions, but the pressure, 
noise, and bustle of the crowds would be 
such as to destroy everything in the 
shape of devotional propriety and enjoy- 
ment. I cannot, therefore, but take the 
meaning to be, that the nations in ques- 
tion will go up to Jerusalem in the per- 
sons of their representatives, just as in 
former times the Jews resident in foreign 
countries had those who went to the 
annual festivals in their name, or on 
their behalf. Why the Egyptians should 
be specially introduced, ver. 18, it is diffi- 


cult to determine, except it be, that as 
their country is watered by the Nile, and 
is not dependent for fertility upon rain 
falling in the country itself, they might 
be considered as exempt from the threat- 
ened plague of drought. But, if the 
rains fail in Ethiopia, it will in effect be 
the same as if they fail in Egypt itself. 


se Gees 
: 


It is worthy of notice, that the Feast 
of Tabernacles or Booths is the only one 
of all the Jewish festivals which is rep- 
resented in this prophecy as being ob- 
served at the period therein specified. 
No mention is made of the great day of 
Atonement, the Passover, the Pentecost, 
etc. These have all been superseded by 
their fulfilment as types in the substan- 
tial blessings of the Christian economy. 
Their re-establishment would be a denial 
of the reality or efficacy of their anti- 
types. It may, however, be asked, Why 
should the Feast of Tabernacles form an 
exception? To this it may be replied, 
first, that such a festival may be observed 
without any compromise of the principles 
of the New Disperisation. Secondly, it 
may be considered as peculiarly adapted 
to the retrospections of the converted 
Jews, who will have to commemorate 
the sojourn of their fathers, not merely 
for forty years in the wilderness, but 
their sojourn for two thousand years in 
the countries of the dispersion. And 
thirdly, it may serve as a striking me- 
mento to them, that, though they have 
been restored to the rest of Canaan, they 
are still only strangers and pilgrims upon 
the earth, and that there yet remaineth 
a rest for the people of God. In this 


438 


ZECHARIAH. 


Cuap. XIV. 


To worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, 
Upon them there shall be no rain. 
18 And if the family of Egypt should not go up, nor come, 
Upon them also there shall be none ; 
There shall be upon them the plague, 
With which Jehovah shall plague the nations, 


That will not go up 


To celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 


19 


This shall be the punishment of Egypt, 


And the punishment of all the nations 


That will not go up 


To celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 


20 
Hotness TO JEHOVAH ; 


In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, 


And the pots in the house of Jehovah 
Shall be as the bowls before the altar. 


point of view, believing Gentiles, who 
may go up to the festival, can find no 
difficulty in celebrating it with them to 
their mutual edification. That the sac- 
rifices which were offered at that feast, 
or any other animal sacrifices, will then 
be renewed, is a position, to maintain 
which would be to counteract the express 
design, and contradict the express decla- 
rations of the dispensation of grace. 

It may be said, that Ezekiel gives a 
full description of the re-establishment 
of the sacrificial system and of the whole 
of the temple worship. Nothing can be 
more certain. But when was this re- 
establishment to take place? Any one 
who will only cursorily examine the 
commencement of the fortieth chapter 
of that prophet will at once perceive, 
that, though it follows immediately after 
chapters relating to the destruction of 
Gog and Magog, it was nevertheless de- 
livered to the prophet not fewer than 
thirteen years afterwards, and may, 
therefore, naturally be expected to refer 
to a subject altogether different. That 
subject I conceive to be the restoration 
of the temple and the temple worship 
after the return from Babylon—a sub- 
ject which cannot but have lain near 
the heart of the exiles, and worthy to be 


made the theme of prophecy, but which 
is nowhere else referred to in the book 
of Ezekiel. Difficulty there may be in 
making the measurements there given 
agree with those specified by Josephus 
as the dimensions of the second temple ; 
but far greater difficulties attach to every 
attempt to refer them to a temple still 
future, or to view them as wholly em- 
blematical. 

19. The connection shows that nsun 
is not here to be taken in the sense of 
sin, but of the punishment of sin. Comp. 
Lam. iii. 38, iv. 6. 

20. The m4$x%2 were small metallic 
plates, suspended from the necks or 
heads of horses and camels, for the sake 
of ornament, and making a tinkling 
noise by striking against each other like 
cymbals. Root tbs, to tingle, tinkle. 
As the inscription m4n*% wp, Horiness 
To JEHOVAH, was the sacred symbol en- 
graven upon the golden crown of the 
Jewish High Priest, the design of the 
prophecy is evidently to teach, that when 
the Jews shall be restored to their own 
land, there shall be no greater degree of 
holiness attaching to what was formerly 
accounted most sacred, than what will 
attach to the ornamental trappings of 
the horses. Devotion of person and 


Cuap. XIV. 


ZECHARIAH. 


439 


21 Yea every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah 
Shall be holiness to Jehovah of hosts; 
And all who slaughter shall come, 
And take of them and boil in them, 
And there shall no more be a Canaanite 
In the house of Jehovah of hosts in that day, 


property to the service of God will be 
the only holiness then recognized. Cere- 


monial sanctity shall no longer exist. . 


The same thing is expressed in the sec- 
ond clause of the verse. The vessels in 
which the flesh was cooked, and which 
were accounted the meanest about the 
temple, shall, as to the degree of holiness, 
be upon a par with those which had 
been destined for the most sacred pur- 
pose, namely, the reception of the blood 
of the sacrificial victims. All distinction 
shall be done away. 

21. The same idea is here more fully 
carried out. Not only the common uten- 
sils used by the priests, but those em- 
ployed for cooking in private houses, 
both at Jerusalem and throughout the 
country, shall all be regarded as equally 
holy. From its being expressly stated, 
that the flesh of the animals to be slaugh- 


tered is to be boiled in the pots, and no 
mention is made of the sprinkling of the 
blood, it must be inferred that killing for 
food, and not for sacrifice, is what the 
prophet has in view. Considering what 
stumbling-blocks a mercenary and covet- 
ous priesthood has ever proved to the 
world, and to what a fearful extent the 
ministry in holy things has been made a 
matter of merchandise, there is great force 
in the declaration with which the prophet 
closes: ‘There shall no more be a Ca- 
naanite in the house of Jehovah!” By 
"2722 , Canaanite, is meant a merchant ; 
the Pheenicians, who inhabited the north- 
ern part of Canaan, having been the 
most celebrated merchants of antiquity. 
See for this acceptation of the term, Job 
xl. 30; Prov. xxxi. 24; Is. xxiii. 8. It 
is here used metaphorically. 


MALACHI. 





Matacut (*Ss57, Messenger), is the last of all the Hebrew prophets, but 
we are left in profound ignorance respecting his personal history, and can 
only judge of the circumstances of his times from what is contained in his 
book. According to the tradition of the synagogue, he lived after the proph- 
ets Haggai and Zechariah, and was contemporary with Nehemiah. This 
statement is fully borne out by the affinity of the book written by the prophet, 
with that written by the patriot. Both presuppose. the temple to have been 
already built. The same condition of the Jews is described. They both 
condemn foreign marriages, and enforce the due payment of tythes, which 
had been neglected. They likewise correct abuses which had crept in with 
respect to the sacrifices, and reprove their countrymen for their want of 
sympathy with the poor. | 

In all probability, Malachi occupied the same place with respect to Nehe- 
miah, which Haggai and Zechariah did with respect to Zerubbabel. That 
the former was assisted in the discharge of his duties by prophets, may be 
inferred from the charge brought against him by Sanballat, Neh. vi. 7. He 
may therefore be conceived of as having flourished somewhere about the 
year B. c. 420. His book is composed of a series of spirited castigations, in 
which the persons accused are introduced as repelling the charges, but thereby 
only affording occasion for a fuller exposure, and a more severe reproof of 
their conduct. Both priests and people are unsparingly reprimanded, and 
while they are threatened with divine judgments, encouragement is held out 
to such as walked in the fear of the Lord. His predictions respecting John 
the Baptist, the Messiah, and the destruction of the Jewish polity, are clear 
and unequivocal. 

Considering the late age in which he lived, the language of Malachi is 
pure; his style possesses much in common with the old prophets, but is dis- 
tinguished more by its animation, than by its rhythmus or grandeur. 


CHAPTER I. 


Wiru a view to work a conviction of ingratitude in the minds of his countrymen, the 
prophet begins by setting forth the peculiar favor which Jehovah had shown to them as 
a people in contradistinction to the Edomites, 1—5. He then reproaches the priests for 
their unworthy conduct in presenting the refuse of the animals in sacrifice, 6—8; charges 
them with a mercenary spirit, and threatens to reject them, and supply their place with 
true worshippers from among the most distant heathen, 9—11; and concludes with a re- 
newed reprimand, and the denunciation of a curse upon those who practised deception 


with respect to the offerings, 12—14. 





1 Tux Sentence of Jehovah’s oracle to Israel by Malachi. 
2 Ihave loved you, saith Jehovah, 

Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? 

Was not Esau brother to Jacob? saith Jehovah, 


Yet I loved Jacob, 


1. For the formula ; ny “a7 sea, 
see on Zech. ix. 1. That “oybn P Mal- 
achi, is the proper name of the prophet, 
and not a mere official appellative, as the 
LXX., Vitringa, and others, interpret, 
may safely be inferred from the analogy 
of the title with others. prefixed to the 
prophetical writings. As for the form 
of the name, Vitringa, Hiller, Michaelis, 
and Gesenius, take it to be compounded 
of 5xb% and =>, of which they consider 
» to be a contraction, and accordingly 
explain the name as meaning The Mes- 
senger of Jehovah. To this, however, it 
has been objected, that no examples of 
an abbreviation of the Divine name to 
this extent are to be found; and, there- 
fore, it has been deemed more natural to 
regard the » as the pronominal affix of 
the first person singular, and to render, 
My Messenger. This latter solution has 
been adopted by Hengstenberg, who 
labors in vain to establish a connection 
between the name of the prophet, and 
the same word as occurring in its official 
signification, chap. iii, 1. The form ap- 
pears to be really nothing more than an 
instance of what Ewald calls “the last 
and newest mode of deriving adjectives 


from nouns,” and denoting origin or 
source. Compare "729, "72, "700, 
"THO, "53, “ba, ete. beat, Israel, 
is here used to denote the whole of the 
twelve tribes, which had returned to their 
native land, Jer. 1. 4, 5, 19, 20. 

2, 3. The sovereign benevolence of 
Jehovah, and the ingratitude of the 
Hebrews in the time of the prophet, are 
strikingly contrasted. To the petulant 
question, ** Wherein hast thou loved 
us?” which is only the first of a series 
which are put in the course of the book, 
the answer is direct and conclusive — in 
showing greater kindness to their pro- 
genitor Jacob, than he had done to his 
brother Esau. The temporal advantages 
of Palestine were vastly superior to those 
of Idumea, which was comparatively a 
sterile and desert country ; and the Jews_ 
had, besides, experienced distinguished 
favor in having been restored to their 
land, and had prosperity conferred upon 
them, while the Edomites, who had suf- 
fered from the invasion of their country 
by the Chaldeans, five years after the 
capture of Jerusalem, had not been re- 


stored. It is to the desolations occa- 
sioned by this invasion that reference is 


56 


442 
3 But I hated Esau, 


MALACHI. 


Cuap. L 


And made his mountains a desolation, 
And his heritage abodes of the desert. 

4 Because Edom saith, We are impoverished, 
But we will rebuild the desolate places ; 


Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, 


They may build, but I will overthrow ; 

And men shall call them, The border of wickedness, 

And, The people against whom Jehovah is indignant forever. 
5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, 

Let Jehovah be magnified, from the border of Israel. 


6 A son honoreth his father, 
And a servant his master : 


If then I be a father, where is my honor? 
And if I be a master, where is my fear? 
Saith Jehovah of hosts to you, O ye priests, 
That despise my name; yet ye say, 
Wherein have we despised thy name? 


made ver. 3. w2w, 40 hate, is here used 
in a comparative sense, qualifying the 
preceding verb ans, ¢o love. As the 
opposite of love is hatred, when there 
is only an inferior degree of the former 
exhibited, the object of it is regarded as 
being hated rather than loved. See for 
this idiom, Gen. xxix. 30, 31; Deut. 
xxi. 15, 16; Prov. xiii. 24; Matt. vi. 
24; Luke xiv. 26, compared with Matt. 
x. 37. m4anm is considered by some to 
be the feminine of n=3m , and is rendered 
serpents, jackals, or the like; but it is 
preferable to adopt the derivation from 


the Arabic, Ls substitit, habitavit. 


Hence ¥7ls, habitatio, mansio. By 
the “habitations of the desert,” are 
meant deserted, ruined dwellings, such 
as are still found in great abundance in 
Idumea. The phrase is parallel to px: 
in the preceding hemistich, and corre- 
sponds to the nian, waste places, or 
ruins, ver. 4. 

4, 5. Every attempt on the part of the 
Idumeans to recover themselves, and en- 
joy permanent prosperity, should prove 


abortive, and their continually depressed 
condition should afford additional proof 
to the Israelites of the kindness of God 
towards his own people. bana » bound- 
ary, is here used in the sense of territory, 
or the space marked out by the surround- 
ing boundaries. Comp. Gen. x. 19; 
Numb. xxi. 24. ban: tanad ben, 
according to Rosenmiiller, Hitzig, Mau- 
rer, and Ewald, means beyond the He- 
brew territory,— construing the words 
with $355, but it seems more natural to 
connect them with s-~im tms. Ye 
who dwell upon the land of Israel shall 
say from the locality you occupy, and to 
which, through Divine goodness, ye have 
been restored, Jehovah be magnified. 
The 4 prefixed to $323, adds nothing to 
the force of the preceding preposition. 
See Gesen. in by%. 

6. Upon the fact of the respect usually 
shown by inferiors to their superiors, Je- 
hovah had a right to expect that honor 
and reverence which corresponded to the 
high position which he occupied as Au- 
thor and Moral Governor of the universe. 
These having, however, been withheld, 


Cuap. I. 


7 


MALACHI. 443 
In offering polluted bread upon my altar; 

But ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? 

In your saying, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. 

When ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? 

And when ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? 
Present it now to thy governor; 

Will he be satisfied with thee, 

Or accept thy person? saith Jehovah of hosts. 

Now, then, conciliate the regard of Jehovah, that he may pity us: 
This hath been by your means; 


Will he accept your persons? saith Jehovah of hosts. 


10 


Who is there even among you that would shut the doors? 


Yea, ye will not kindle the fire on my altar for nought. 
I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 


11 


But from the rising of the sun to its setting, 


My name shall be great among the nations; 
And in every place, incense shall be offered to my name, 


And a pure offering ; 


chiefly owing to the irreligious and pro- 
fane conduct of the priests, the charge is 
principally laid against them. 

7. Thate n> , bread, or food, is here to 
be taken as the Arab. 


sense of animal flesh, is obvious, from its 
being presented on the natn, altar of 
sacrifice, to which also the qnbe , table, 
must be referred, and not to the table 
of shew-bread. Contempt of sacred 
things involves contempt of Him to 
whom they appertain. 

8. Another argumentum ad hominem. 
The priests had the effrontery to present 
to Jehovah what they would not have 
dared to offer to their civil governor. 
To offer animals with any blemish, was 
expressly prohibited in the law. Lev. 
xxii. 22, 24; Deut. xv. 21. 

9. How much soever the words pn} 
spprins bem se mawms>n, may at first 
sight appear to contain a serious exhorta- 
tion to the priests to repent of their 
wicked conduct, and to pray for the Di- 
vine favor to themselves and the people, 
yet the connection requires them to be 


, caro, in the 


understood ironically. No prayers or 
supplications of theirs could avail any- 
thing while they presented such unlaw- 
ful sacrifices. This is expressly declared 
in the form of a pointed interrogation at 
the close of the verse. 725 t27 NOin 
is a more emphatic form, instead of 
PS 3b Seon. 

10, ‘LL. ‘The rendering of the LXX., 
adopted by Newcome, “ Surely the doors 
shall be closed against you,’’ cannot be 
admitted. The authority for the change 
of “2, who, into ">, surely, is of no 
weight ; and the verb -35 is never con- 
strued with 3, in order to express the 
idea of exclusion. Such was the avari- 
cious disposition of the priests, that they 
would not perform even the most trivial 
services without payment. How could 
such expect to be acceptable to God? 
These verses contain an explicit predic- 
tion of the rejection of the Jewish wor- 
ship, and of the reception of the Gen- 
tiles to perform spiritual worship in the 
Church of the Lord. His name, which 
the priests had treated with contempt, 


444 MALACHI. Cuap. IL 


For my name shall be great among the nations, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


12 But ye have profaned it by your saying, 
The table of Jehovah is polluted, 
And its fruit, even his food, is contemptible. 
13 Ye have also said, What a weariness! 
And have contemned it, saith Jehovah of hosts ; 
And ye have brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick, 
Yea, ye have brought the offering ; 
Should I accept it at your hand? saith Jehovah. 

14 But cursed be the deceiver, who hath a male in his flock, 
And voweth, and sacrificeth to J ehovah that which is corrupt 5 
For I am a great king, saith Jehovah of hosts, 

And my name shall be feared among the nations. 


ver. 6, should receive universal homage 
among the nations that had been addicted 
to idolatry, and who were now the ob- 
jects of abomination on the part of the 
Jews. The sacrificial terms are transfer- 
red from their original application to 
ceremonial objects and acts, to such as 
are spiritual, agreeably to the nature of 
the new economy. Comp. John iv. 
20—24; Heb. xiii. 10, 15, 16; 1 Pet. ii. 
5. All that Hitzig can discover in these 
verses is, that God was worshipped by all 
nations, under the different names of 
Jehovah, Ormuzd, Zeus, etc. !!! 
12—14. A renewal of the charge 
against the priests, nearly in the same 
words. ps>m is an abbreviated form 
for nsb7 772 . Comp. 3%, Exod. iv. 2; 
oobi, Is. iii. 15. Snéx, it, after panen, 
refers to {5x in the preceding verse, and 
is not to be changed into =n4x, me, as 


proposed in the Tikkune Sopherim. The 
4 in ndfn—nsx% is omitted in ninety- 
three MSS., in seven printed editions, 
and in all the versions except the Syriac. 
Though it is not said that the mn, 
meat offering, consisted of inferior in- 
gredients, yet it is either implied, or the 
idea is intended to be conveyed, that the 
presentation of the other sacrifices ren- 
dered this, however pure in itself, unac- 
ceptable to God. Hitzig and Maurer 
regard mri to be a contraction of the 
feminine Anna; but I should rather 
think it ought to be pointed mrwra, as 
in Lev. xxii. 25, where it occurs, in ap- 
plication to the same subject, in the mas- 
culine gender. Many MSS. and some 
of the early editions read 4m} instead 
of "34x, which has no doubt been sub- 
stituted for it by some superstitious Jew- 
ish scribe, 





CHAPTER II. 


THE prophet continues to urge the charge against the priests, warning them that if they 
did not reform, they should be deprived of all enjoyment, and rendered the objects of 
shame and contempt, 1—4. The original institution, and the sacred nature and obliga- 
tions of the priestly office, are then brought forward, with which to contrast the base- 


Cuap. II. 


MALACHI. 


445 


ness of their conduct in violating its responsibilities; and the section closes with another 
threatening of punishment, 5—9. In a new section the prophet takes up the subject of 
divorce, and marriage with foreign women, and severely reproves the priests for the evil 
example which they had set in this respect, 10—16. They are finally charged with teaching 


immoral doctrine, 17. 





1 AnD now, unto you is this charge, O ye priests ! 
2 If ye will not hearken, nor lay it to heart, 
To give glory to my name, saith Jehovah of hosts ; 


I will send the curse among you, and will curse your blessing, 
Yea, I will curse them singly, 
Because ye lay it not to heart. 


8 Behold! I will rebuke the seed to your hurt, 
And I will scatter dung upon your faces, 


The dung of your festivals; 


And ye shall be taken away with it. 
4 And ye shall know that I have sent you to this charge, 
Because my covenant was with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
5 My covenant of life and peace was with him, 


And I gave them to him, 


For the fear which he showed for me, 
And the awe in which he stood of my name, 


2. mstor, is emphatic, and doubtless 
has reference to Deut. xxvii. 14, ete. 
The feminine suffix in mnins is to be 
taken distributively, with reference to 
the mona , dlessings, immediately pre- 
ceding. — 

3. The > in ps is that of the Dati- 
vus incommodi, * to your detriment or 
disadvantage.” y+, seed, is not to be 
changed into y4n4,, and rendered shoul- 
der, as Houbigant and Newcome do, 
merely on the authority of the LXX. 
There is great force in the reference to 
the dung of the festivals, as the maw, 
which contained it, belonged to the 
priests, Deut. xviii. 3. dy in iby has 
the signification of with, together with, 
as in Lam. iii.41. Such usage, however, 
israre. wiv: is to be taken imperson- 
ally. 

4. 335, to know, has here the signi- 
fication, to know by experience, to feel 


the consequences of transgression. From 
the words which follow, we must infer 
that knowledge issuing in reformation of 
conduct is meant. On no other condi- 
tion could the Levitical covenant con- 
tinue in force. 

5. In this and the following verses the 
prophet forcibly contrasts with the base 
and unworthy conduct of the priests, the 
noble character of their progenitor, with 
whom officially Jehovah had entered into 
covenant. The reference, however, is 
not to Levi personally, but to Phinehas, 
Numb. xxv. 12, 13, where we have an 
account of this covenant, there called 
rite sn4a, my covenant of peace, and 
bbiy mins m2, the covenant of an 
everlasting priesthood. Both ideas are 
expressed in the present verse, and the 
meaning is, that the covenant was secured 
in perpetuity. Before pityn:s ovnn 
the word m2 is understood from the 


446 


MALACHI. 


Cuap. IL. 


6 The law of truth was in his mouth; 
No iniquity was found in his lips ; 
He walked with me in peace and uprightness, 
And turned many from iniquity. 
” For the lips of the priest should preserve knowledge, 
And men should seek the law at his mouth, 
For he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts. 
8 But, as for you, ye have departed from the way, 
Ye have made many to stumble in the law; 
Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
9 Therefore have I also rendered you contemptible and base to all 


the people ; 


Forasmuch as ye have not observed my ways, 
And have acted partially in the law. 


10 


preceding. siya, fear or reverence, is 
here the accusative absolute. mm is the 
Niphal of nnn , é0 be terrified, dismayed. 
This verb is here purposely employed to 
express the extraordinary degree of pro- 
found and holy awe with which Phine- 
has was inspired when zealously vindi- 
cating the honor of Jehovah. 

6, 7. A comprehensive and beautiful 
description of the character and spiritual 
duties of Phinehas, which ought to have 
been realized in the persons and minis- 
trations of all his successors in office, and 
which suggests topics of the most serious 
self-examination to all who engage in 
the work of the Christian ministry. The 
higher and more important functions of 
the sacerdotal office are here recognized, 
to the exclusion of such as were merely 
ceremonial. These the priests in the 
days of Malachi had neglected, while 
they discharged the latter in a perfunc- 
tory and niggardly manner. That mn 
is not here to be rendered doctrine, but is 
to be taken in its appropriated sense of 
law, appears from the use of the term in 
the two following verses. > >» is in the 
accusative case, with which E703 , asin 
other instances of passive verbs, does not 
agree in number. See Gesen. Gram. § 
140, 1b. The priests were the ordinary 


Have we not all one Father ? 


expounders of the law to the people} it 
was only on special and extraordinary 
occasions that the prophets gave their 
decision. Each of them was, therefore, 
to be regarded as qb » & Messenger, OF 
interpreter of the Divine will. 

8. The character of the priests whom 
Malachi was sent to reprove was the 
very reverse of that exhibited by Phi- 
nehas. Not only did they violate the 
law themselves, but, as is universally the 
case, induced others by their bad exam- 
ple to violate it likewise. They thus 
forfeited all right to the sacerdotal im- 
munities of the Levitical covenant. 

9. "23—pa7 is strikingly antithetical 
to ons at the beginning of ver. 8. The 
priests are here threatened with a retri- 
bution corresponding to their base and 
contemptible character, an additional and 
aggravating feature of which is added, 
viz. partiality in the decisions which they 
gave on points of law. Instead of psn, 
the people, twenty-three MSS., and a few 
printed editions, the LXX., Targ., Arab., 
and Hexapl. Syr., read p-x3n , the peo- 
ples or nations, but much less appropri- 
ately. 

10, The prophet now proceeds to ad- 
minister reproof to the people, and espec- 
ially to the priests, for their flagrant 


Cuap. II. 


Hath not one God created us? 


MALACHI. 


447 


Wherefore do we act unfaithfully one to another, 
Profaning the covenant of our fathers ? 


11 


Judah hath acted unfaithfully ; 


And an abominable thing hath been done in Israel and in Jeru- 


salem ; 


For Judah hath profaned that which was holy to Jehovah, 


That which he loved, 


And hath married the daughter of a strange god. 


12 


Jehovah will cut off the man that doeth this, 


Him that watcheth, and him that answereth, 


From the tents of Jacob, 


And him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah of hosts. 


violation of the law, which prohibited in- 
termarriages with foreigners. See Exod. 
xxxiv. 16; Deut. vii. 3. For‘the his- 
torical account of this violation, see Ezra 
ix. 1, 2; Neh. xiii, 23—31. That by 
“rN aN , one Father, we are to under- 
stand Jehovah, and not Abraham, or 
Jacob, as some have supposed, is deter- 
mined by the force of the parallelism, 
in which we have the corresponding and 
elucidatory phrase thx bs, one God. 
As the Jews put away their wives, that 
they might marry others, they are here 
distinctly taught that both males and 
females stood in the same relation to God 
as their common Father and Creator. 
He had an equal propriety in them, and 
when the men acted the part for which 
they are here reproved, they acted un- 
justly by their Maker. But, in addition 
to this, they broke the covenant made 
with their fathers, which interdicted such 
practices. ms, brother, is not here to be 
pressed, as if reference were had to the 
father of the female who had been re- 
pudiated. ims dns is the usual idiom, 
one against another. Comp. 1 Thess. iv. 
6. The questions so pointedly put at the 
commencement of this verse are highly 
condemnatory of that degradation which 
is experienced by Oriental females. Not 
only do most of the Mohammedans deny 
them the privilege of immortality, but 
the Jews universally to this day give 


thanks every morning —the man, that 
God has not made him a woman; and 
the woman, that God has made her 
sD, according to his pleasure. 

11. The nominative to mas is Ts * 
understood in 7715 By mint Cp, 
the holiness of Johobah, is meant the 
people of the Hebrews, who were sep- 
arated to be a people devoted to his ser- 
vice. Comp. 1pm my, the holy seed, 
Ezra ix. 2; ands mynd tae wap, TIs- 
rael is holiness, i. e. holy ‘to Jehovah, 
Jer. ii. 3. For am a2 comp. Ps. xlvii. 
5. “The daughter of a strange god” 
means an idolatress, a female addicted to. 
the worship of a false deity. 

12. -25 sy has been variously ren- 
dered. The LXX. mistaking -» for =>, 
have éws cal tarewwSh. Vulg. magis- 
trum et discipulum. Targ. "2 "25 "2; 


Fv ~ v 
son and son’s son. Syr. jo 0 ont jo 


1p; both his son and his son’s son. 


Thus also Abarbanel, Sachs, Ewald, and 
others. The phrase is obviously, from 
its very form, like -52 992, 3475", 2552,5 
proverbial, and has its parallel i in the Ara- 


bic ras Ys fo les Ui» 
There is not in Ae city a caller, nor is 


there a responder, Life of Timur, quoted 
by Gesenius in his Thesaur. p. 1004. 


Turkish, lym ps ®L,! ose 


448 


MALACHI. 


Cuap. IT, 


13 And this ye have done a second time, 
Covering the altar of Jehovah with tears, 


With weeping and groaning, 


So that there is no longer any regard paid to the offering, 
Nor is it favorably received at your hand, 


14 Yet ye say, Wherefore ? 


Because Jehovah was witness 


Between thee and the wife of thy youth; 
To whom thou hast acted unfaithfully, 
Though she was thy companion and covenanted wife. 


15 Yet did he not make one? 


Though he had the residue of the spirit ; 


And why the one? 


That he might seek a godly seed ; 
Therefore take heed to your spirit, | 
That none act unfaithfully to the wife of his youth. 


sicko | , both the watcher, and the an- 


swerer. The meaning is, that none should 
be left alive; all should be cut off. Ge- 
senius thinks that the reference is prob- 
ably to the Levites who kept watch in 
the temple by night, and who called and 
responded to each other at certain inter- 
vals; but the mention that is made of 
«the tents of Jacob” immediately after, 
shows that the words are not to be thus 
restricted. “x is the participle of 19, 
to wake, be awake. 

13. mod is to be taken strictly in the 
sense of a second time. Measures had 
been adopted to cure the evil in the time 
of Ezra, chap. ix. x.; but the Jews had 
relapsed into the same sin of marrying 
foreign wives in that of Nehemiah, and 
it is this latter which the prophet here 
reproves. Neh. xiii. 23—31. The lan- 
guage implies an aggravation of the 
offence. The crying and weeping were 
those of the Jewish wives who had been 
repudiated by their husbands, 

14. The legitimate marriages had been 
contracted with special appeal to Jehovah 
as witness of the transaction. The phrase 
Tyr. ngs, the wife of thy youth, has 
reference to the early marriages among 


the Hebrews. In Poland, at the pres- 
ent day, they marry at the age of thir- 
teen and fourteen, and the females still 
younger. » 

15, 16. Michaelis, Hitzig, Maurer, and 
Hengstenberg, concur in the opinion ex- 
pressed in the Targum, and adopted by 
most of the Rabbins, that by tmx, one, 
and myn, the one, Abraham is intend- 
ed; and maintain, that what is here 
stated, was designed to repel an objection 
raised by the priests, viz., that Abraham 
took an Egyptian female in addition to 
Sarah. The prophet, according to them, 
admits the fact, but denies the conse- 
quence, by showing that Abraham still 
retained the Spirit of God, because his 
object in contracting this alliance was to 
obtain the seed which God had promised 
him, and not to gratify carnal passion, 
to which the evil here condemned was to 
be traced. Ewald refers sms, one, to 
God, considering the term to be used 
here in the same sense as in ver. 10, but 
fails in giving a satisfactory explanation 
of the passage. Nor does the other in- 
terpretation at all do justice to its claims ; 
so that we are shut up to the conclusion, 
that by "nism , the one, we are to under- 
stand tnx "v2, the one flesh, or conju- 


Cuap. III. 


MALACHI. 


449 


16 For I hate divorce, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, 
And for a man to cover over his garment with violence, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts; 


Therefore take heed to your spirit, 


That ye act not unfaithfully. 
17 


Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, 


Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him ? 

In your saying, Every one that doeth evil 

Is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; 
Or, Where is the God of justice ? 


gal body into which the first couple were 
formed, Gen, ii. Instead of forming only 
two into one, the Creator might have 
given to Adam many wives. There was 
no lack of spiritual existence from which 
to furnish them with intelligent souls. 
When he gave to Eve such an existence, 
he did not exhaust the immense fountain 
of being. There remained all with which 
the human race hath been furnished 
throughout its generations. What, then, 
the prophet asks, was the design of the 
restriction ? to this he replies, the secur- 
ing of a pious offspring. Divorces and 
polygamy have ever been unfavorable to 
the education of children. It is only by 
the harmonious and loving attention be- 
stowed by parents upon their children, 
that they can be expected to be brought 
up in the fear of God. The reply bore 
hard upon the priests who had married 
idolatrous wives. In such a connection 
there was everything to counteract and 
destroy the interests of piety. 


16. x2‘v should be pointed x23 , with 
the personal pronoun *3;3 understood. 
By wand, garment, it is now generally 
admitted we are to understand the wife, 
who had the most glaring injustice done 
to her by giving her a divorce, or by 
taking one or more in addition to her. 
Thus the Arab. and , texit, induit; 
usu vestimentum, * conjuz tum mu- 
lier viri, tum vir mulieris, quod sibi invi- 
cem pro tegumento sunt.” Freytag. Ac- 
cordingly we read in the Koran, Sur. 


183, respecting the wives : wld p> 


urd yous pists ad; they are 


your garment, and you are theirs. In 
the ecclesiastical language of the East, 
matrimony was called 7d Svntbv Kai Sov- 
Aukoy iudriov. 

17. The old objection taken against 
the providence of God from the afflic- 
tions of the righteous, and the prosperity 
of the wicked. 





CHAPTER III. 


Tas chapter commences with a lucid prophecy of John the Baptist, as the forerunner of 
the Messiah, and of the Messiah himself, who was, as he had long been, the object of de- 
lightful expectation to the Jews, 1. The aspect of his advent in regard to the wicked, 
and especially to the ungodly priesthood, is next introduced, together with the severe 
judgments that were to be brought upon the nation, 2—6. The people are then reproved 
for having withheld the legal tithes and offerings, and are promised a profusion of bless- 
ings in case of repentance, 7—12. To the infidel objection that there is no utility in relig- 


57 


450 


MALACHI. 


Cuap. ID. 


jon, seeing the wicked prosper, while the godly are oppressed, the prophet replies by 


pointing to the day of retribution, when 


all should be treated according to their charac- 


ter, which would then be fully disclosed, 18—18. 





1 Benotrp! I will send my messenger, 
And he shall prepare the way before me, 
And suddenly there shall come to his temple 


The Lord whom ye seek, 


1. That by ">xd%2 , my messenger, we 
are to understand John the Baptist, is 
placed beyond dispute by the appro- 
priation of the words of the prophecy 
to him, Mark i. 1, Comp. Is. xl. 3. 
Hengstenberg strangely gives in to the 
notion of Eichhorn and Theiner, that 
the collective body of the prophets is 
intended, though he thinks that the idea 
of the messenger chiefly concentrates in 
John. Not one of his five reasons is at 
all satisfactory. The office of this mes- 
senger is described as preparing the way 
for the Messiah. The language is bor- 
rowed from the custom of sending pio- 
neers before an Eastern monarch, to cut 
through rocks, and forests, and remove 
every impediment that might obstruct 
his course. 325, which in Kal is never 
transitive, signifies in Piel ¢o clear, clear 
away, put in order, prepare. This John 
did by preaching repentance, and an- 
nouncing the near approach of the king- 
dom of God. Comp. chap. iv. 5. In 
this prophecy of the Messiah are three 
palpable and incontrovertible proofs of 
his divinity. First, he is identified with 
Jehovah: “he shall prepare the way be- 
fore mz’’ — “saith Jehovah.” Second- 
ly, He is represented as the Proprietor 
of the temple. Thirdly, He is charac- 
terized as 441", Tue Soverzien, a 
title nowhere given in this form to any 
except Jehovah. In its anarthrous state 
the noun 448 is applicable to any 
owner, possessor, or ruler, and it is ap- 
plied in the construct state to Jehovah as 
Vy b2 js, the Possessor of the 


whole earth, Josh. iii. 11, 13 ; but when 
it takes the article, as here, it is used 
kar’ éoxhv, and exclusively of the Di- 
vine Being. See Exod. xxiii. 17, xxxiv. © 
23. Is. i. 24, iii. 1, x. 16, 33, xix. 4; 
See Dr. J. Pye Smith’s Messiah, vol. i. 
pp. 442—444. Abenezra thus explains 
the term, and identifies the Sovereign 
Lord with the Angel spoken of immedi- . 
ately after: 4udvo SIN THAD Is PAA 
bip> trun > ninan, The Lord is both 
the Divine Majesty, and the Angel of the 
Covenant, for the sentence is doubled. It 
is likewise admitted in Mashmiah Je- 
shua, fol. 76, 45% $9 jrNm waDd WES 
mewn, The Lord may be explained of 
the King Messiah ; and Kimchi not only, 
with Abenezra, identifies the Lord and 
the Angel, but applies both to the Mes- 
siah: simi pwen 4b sn PINT 
monan ‘qnbe, The Lord is the King 
Messiah, he is also the Angel of the Cov- 
enant; though, in. order to elude the 
Christian application of the passage, he 
suggests another interpretation, accord- 
ing to which Elijah is meant. It has 
been questioned, whether the phrase 
man ysba, the Messenger of the Cov- 
enant, is to be viewed retrospectively or 
prospectively ; in other words, whether 
it be the Old or the New Covenant to 
which reference is made. Considering 
the fact, that in such parallel forms as 
man nmi, the tables of the covenant, 
man s4-8, the ark of the covenant, 
nina od, the book of the covenant, 
monn bx, the blood of the covenant, 
etc., the ancient dispensation which Je- 


Cuap. IIL 


MALACHI. 


451 


Even the Messenger of. the covenant, in whom ye delight, 
Behold! he shall come, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
2 But who may endure the day of his coming ? 
And, who may stand when he appeareth ? 
For he is like the fire of the refiner, 
And like the soap of the fullers ; 
3 And he shall sit, refining and purifying the silver ; 
He shall purify the sons of Levi, — 
And refine them like gold and like silver, 
That they may présent to Jehovah an offering in righteousness. 


4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem 


Be pleasing to Jehovah, 


hovah granted to the Hebrews at Sinai 
is intended, it would seem natural to in- 
fer that no 27 438579 is to be understood 
in the same way. This view of the sub- 
ject would seem to be corroborated by 
the circumstances, that a ssb70 , Angel 
or Messenger, who is said to possess the 
Divine name, z. e. whatever is distinctive 
of Deity, is frequently spoken of under 
that economy; that He is represented 
as leading the Israelites out of Egypt, 
giving them the law, and superintend- 
ing the whole of the theocracy. All the 
theophanies or manifestations of the in- 
visible Deity were made in his Person. 
He was the proper nuncius sent to reveal 
the will of the Father. Moses was only 
a Sepamrwy, 729 , or servant employed by 
him, while he was God manifested in 
glory. I can put no other consistent 
construction upon such passages as the 
following: Gen. xlviii. 15, 16; Exod. 
iii, 2—15, xxiii. 20, 21; Is. lxiii. 9; 
Zech. i. ii. iii, vi.; Acts vii. 38 ; Heb. 
xi, 26, xii. 26. In strict consistency 
with the representations of Scripture, 
therefore, the Messiah may be called the 
Messenger of that ancient economy of 
which he was the Founder and Head. 
Most interpreters, however, understand 
the New Covenant, or the dispensation 
of grace, with special reference to Heb. 
ix. 15, where our Saviour is called d:a- 
Shens kawis peotrns, the Mediator of the 
New Covenant ; among others, Grotius, 


Rosenmiiller, and Gesenius. The Jews 
may be said to have sought and delighted 
in the Messiah, because he was the object 
of national expectation and desire, though 
the great body of them formed no higher 
conception of him than that of an earthly 
monarch, under whose reign they should 
enjoy a profusion of temporal blessings. 
When it is declared that he should come 
* suddenly”’ to his temple, it is not im- 
plied that he was to come in or near the 
times of the prophet, but merely that 
his coming would be sudden and unex- 
pected in the circumstances under which 
it took place. 

2—4. Employing a strong metallurgic 
metaphor, the prophet shows that the 
Covenant Messenger would be very dif- 
ferent from that which the carnal Jews 
expected. Instead of flattering their 
prejudices, and gratifying their wishes, 
he would, by his pure and heart-search- 
ing doctrines, subject their principles and 
conduct to the severest test. Those of 
the priests should be specially tried. The 
object he was to have in view in this 
trial, was their purification, that they 
might serve him in righteousness. Matt. 
iii. 12; John xy. 8. And such was the 
result with respect to many of them. 
‘A great company of the priests were 
obedient to the faith,” Acts vi. 7... The 
influence of their conversion upon the 
people must have been very great, though 
we have no information respecting it in 


452 


As in the days of old, 
And as in the former years. 


MALACHI. 


Cuap. IIL. 


5 But I will draw nigh to you for judgment, 


And will be a swift witness 


Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, 
And against those who swear to a falsehood, P 
And against those who wrest the wages of the hireling, 


The widow and the orphan, 


Who turn aside the stranger as to his right, 
And fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
6 Because I am Jehovah, I change not ; 
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 
* Even from the days of your fathers 
Ye have departed from my statutes, and have not kept them; 
Return to me, and I will return to you, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


But ye say, Wherewith shall we return? 


8 Will a man defraud God? 
Yet ye have defrauded me. 


But ye say, Wherein have we defrauded thee? 


In the tithes and the oblations. 
9 Ye are cursed with the curse ; 


For ye — the whole nation — have defrauded me. 
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 


the Acts. The religious services of the 
churches composed of Jewish converts in 
Jerusalem and throughout Judea, are 
represented as peculiarly well-pleasing to 
God. For the meaning of mn , offer- 
ing, as here used, comp. chap. i. 10, 11. 

5. Malachi here returns to his own 
times, and threatens his ungodly con- 
temporaries with divine judgment, speed - 
ily to be executed upon them. Magic 
greatly prevailed among the Jews after 
the captivity, as did also the other crimes 
here specified. How much they obtained 
in the time of our Lord, we learn from 
the Evangelists and Josephus. The 
prophet traces them all back to their 
true source — absence of the fear of God. 
After neyaviaas, the phrase “a2 is 
found in nineteen MSS., in some printed 
editions, and in the LXX., Syr., Hexapl., 
and Arab, 


6. As the incommunicable name =n, 
JEHOVAH, implies a futurity of reference 
with respect to the communication of 
blessings (see on Hos. xii. 5), the Divine 
immutability secured the preservation of 
the Jewish people from destruction, not- 
withstanding their flagrant wickedness, 
till he had accomplished all his purposes 
of mercy. 

7. The} in 197195 is prosthetic, with 
somewhat of its temporal signification. 
There was still mercy in store for the 
Jews, if they only would repent. 

8. yap, which occurs only in our 
prophet, and in Prov. xxii. 23, signifies 
to cover, do anything covertly, defraud. 
Comp. the Arab. fxm retrahit, et: 
occultus. 

9. Comp. chap. ii. 2. , 

10. s="basy,, wsque ad defectum 


Cuap. III. 


MALACHI. 


453 


That there may be meat in my house, 
And try me now with this, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
Whether I will not open for you the windows of heaven, 
And-pour out, a blessing for you, 
Till there shall be a superabundance. 

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, 
And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ; 
Neither shall your vine in the field be unfruitful, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 


12 And all the nations shall pronounce you happy, 
_ For ye shall be a delightful land, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts. 
13 


Your words against me have been hard, saith Jehovah ; 


But ye say, What have we spoken against thee ? 


14 Ye have said: 
It is vain to serve God; 


And what profit is it that we keep his ordinance, 

And that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? 
15 For now we pronounce the proud happy ; 

They also that work wickedness are built up ; 

They even tempt God, yet they are delivered. 


16 


Then they that feared Jehovah 
Conversed one with another; 


And Jehovah hearkened, and heard, 


sufficientia, i, e. not as Gesenius explains 
it, till my abundance be exhausted, 
which being impossible, the phrase is 
equivalent to, forever, without end; but 
where sufficiency can have no more 
place, more than sufficient, superabund- 
antly. To this effect Jerome, Winer, 
De Wette, Hitzig, and Maurer. 

11. By the $5, devourer, noxious 
animals and insects are meant, especially 
the locusts. %>% properly signifies Zo 
cause abortion, render childless, and met- 
aphorically, to make barren or unfruit- 
Jul, when spoken of trees. 

13—15. ptm signifies to bind fast, 
make firm, and, in a bad sense, to be 
hard, obstinate, or the like. Such was 
the language of the Jews against Jeho- 
vah. Comp, Jude 15, wep) mdvrwv rav 
oKAnpav dv éAdAnoay.xat’ abrod. Some 


awful specimens of their hard speeches 
are here exhibited, in which the usual 
objection against the rectitude of Provi- 
dence is dressed up in some of its more 
taking forms. Comp. Job xxi. 14, 15; 
Ps. Ixxiii. 1—14. 4r2 is here used like 
md2 in the bad sense of tempting, or 
braving the Most High by presumptuous 
speeches and conduct. The walking 
mournfully has reference to their going 
about in sackcloth and ashes, pretending 
to sorrow on account of their sins. “tp, 
to be dirty, to go about in filthy gar- 
ments, like persons who mourn; such 
being universally the custom in the East. 
16. 5x, then, specially marks the time 
in which the impious conversations were 
being held. Here IN2372 beautifully con- 
trasts with the same term in the thir- 
teenth verse. The verb is in Niphal, to 


454 


MALACHI. 


Cuar. III. 


And a book of remembrance was written before him, 
For those that feared Jehovah, 


And thought upon his name. 


17 And they shall be a peculiar treasure to me, saith Jehovah of . 


hosts, 


In the day which I have appointed ; 


And I will be kind to them 


As a father is kind to his son who serveth him. 

18 Then shall ye again perceive the difference 
Between the righteous and the wicked, 
Between him that serveth God, 


And him that serveth him not. 


express the reciprocal or conversational 
character of the language. As the un- 
godly did not confine their hard speeches 
to the mere utterance of them to such 
individuals as they might happen to 
meet, but made their infidel objections 
the subject of mutual discussion, so the 
pious are here represented as holding 
mutual converse respecting the interests 
of truth and godliness. It does not ap- 
pear that Niphal ever has the frequenta- 
tive signification, expressed in our com- 
mon version. The writing of a book of 
remembrance is a metaphor borrowed 
from the custom at the Persian court of 
entering in a record the names of any 
who have rendered service to the king, 
with an account of the nature of such 
service. See Esther vi. 1, 2. 

17. mad i is to be construed with a°n4 
">, and mp is connected by means of 
“Ys with phn. The phrase ph: ; mwD, 
to make a day, which occurs chap. iv. 3; 
Ps. cxviii. 24, means to fiz, ordain, ap- 
point, such a vedod for the execution of 
a special purpose. m2 , signifies pri- 
vate, special, or peculiar property. 3d, 
like the kindred root »35 , has the pri- 


mary signification of shutting up, closing, 


and then, secondarily, that of getting, or 
acquiring, what is shut up, in order to 
its being carefully preserved. Hence the 
idea of what is peculiarly valuable or 
precious. The term is applied to the 
people of Israel, Exod. xix. 5; Deut. 
vii. 6, xiv. 2,xxvi. 18. It is used of the 
choice treasure of kings, etc., Eccles. ii. 
8. Itis expressive of the high estima- 
tion in which God holds his people, and, 
in this connection, of their perfect safety 
in the day of judgment. ae 

18. sy¥ is used idiomatically in con- 
nection with m4 to express the repeti- 
tion of the action, the idea of which is 
conveyed by the latter verb. Notwith- 
standing the charge brought by the 
wicked against the providence of God, 
as if he treated all alike, the righteous 
had already had opportunities of perceiv- 
ing from observation and experience, that 
the position was false, viewed in applica- 
tion to the entire state and circumstan- 
ces of the different characters ; but they 
should have another and most convinc- 
ing proof in the salvation of all who 
loved and feared the Lord, and in the 
overthrow and destruction of his ene- 
mies. 


Cuap. IV. 


MALACHI. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Most editions of the Hebrew Bible, and most of the MSS., exhibit this concluding portion 
of the book as a continuation of the third chapter. Nota few MSS., however, leave a 
blank space before it, and several editions make a separate chapter of it. As this division 
obtains in all the versions, it is more convenient to retain it. 

The chapter continues the threatenings against the Jewish unbelievers, 1; exhibits a lumi- 
nous prophecy of the Messiah, and the prosperity of his people, 2,3; and concludes with 
a solemn call to the Jews, to observe the institutes of the old economy, till the forerunner 
of the Messiah should appear, when the Jewish polity should be destroyed, and a new and 


better dispensation established, 4—6. 





1 For, behold! the day cometh, it shall burn as an oven, 
And all the proud, and every one that doeth wickedly, shall be 


stubble, 


* And the day that cometh shall burn them up, 


Saith Jehovah of hosts; 


That it may not leave them either root or branch. 
2 But unto you that fear my name, 
The Sun of righteousness shall arise, 


1. Instead of mxv4 vy nearly 
eighty MSS., the most ancient and sev- 
eral other eitittindl the Babylon, Talmud, 
the LXX., Syr., and Targ., read wv» 
myd> in the plural. The phrase 345 
522 , root or branch, is proverbial, and 
signifies any, the least remnant. The 
persons referred to were to be consigned 
to utter destruction. The Targhum has 
3.525 72, 30” or son’s son. 

2. The term wre%5 , Sun, is metaphor- 
ically applied to God, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, on 
account of that luminary being the most 
glorious and beneficent object which 
meets the human eye. It is with good 
reason supposed to be thus used of the 
Messiah in the declaration, 2 Sam, 
xxiii. 4: 


SQV—NI1? "h 23 monn’, 


“And as the morning light he shall 
arise — a Sun.” 


In the present verse there can be no 
doubt with respect to the application. 
Our Lord is elsewhere called -4x , Light, 
which in Hebrew poetry is used of the 
sun, as the source of light. See Is. ix. 
1, xlix. 6; John i. 9, viii. 12. What 
the sun is to the natural world, that the 
Messiah is tothe moral. The invaluable 
spiritual blessings which he dispenses are 
all comprehended under the two heads 
here specified — righteousness and moral 
health. Comp. Is. lvii. 19. Both of 
these are indispensably requisite to the 
happiness of our guilty and depraved 
race, and from no other quarter can they 
be obtained, than from Him, ‘who of 
God is made unto us wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
demption.” 1 Cor. i. 30. By “ wings” 
we are to understand the beams of the 
sun, on account of the velocity and ex- 
pansion with which they spread over the 


456 


MALACHI. 


Cuap. LV. 


And there shall be healing in his wings; 

And ye shall go forth and leap as calves of the stall. 
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; _ 

Surely they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, 

In the day which I have appointed, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, 

Which I gave him in charge in Horeb for all Israel, 


The statutes and the judgments. 


5 Behold! I will send to you Elijah the prophet, 


earth. Comp. Ps. cxxxix. 9. Those for 
whose immediate benefit the Sun of 
righteousness was to arise, were such as 
«feared the name” of Jehovah — like 
Simeon, who was Slkaos kal evAaBrs, 
righteous and devout, waiting for the 
consolation of Israel. Lukeii. 25. wx°, 
to go forth, is here used in the sense of 
escaping from the judgment to be in- 
flicted upon the unbelieving part of the 
Jewish nation. This the Jewish Chris- 
tians did when they left Jerusalem, and 
proceeded to Pella, where they were pre- 
served in safety. wx, signifies to spread, 
take a wide range, and is used of the 
proud prancing of horses, and as here of 
the leaping and sporting of calves. The 
simile is designed to convey the ideas of 
freedom from outward restraint, and the 
enjoyment of self-conscious hilarity. 

3. This verse expresses the depressed 
‘condition to which the Jews were to be 
reduced after the destruction of their 
polity, contrasted with the prosperous 
condition of those who embraced Chris- 
tianity, and who were no longer subject 
to oppression on the part of their unbe- 
lieving brethren. 

4, As the Jaw and the prophets were 
to remain in force till the appearance of 
John the Baptist, no prophet intervening 
after Malachi to make any further com- 
munications of the Divine will, it was 
necessary to pay the closest attention to 
the enactments and observances of the 
Mosaic institute. That there were no 
more inspired messengers under the Old 
Economy may be inferred, not only from 


the nature of the injunction here given, 
especially as taken in connection with 
the promise of a new messenger in the 
following verse, but also from Ecclesias- — 
ticus xlix. 10, where, after mentioning 
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the author closes 
with tay bHdexa tpopntay, the twelve 
prophets, as the last in the category. 
5. The coherence of this verse with 
the first clause of chap. iii. is too palpa-* 
able to be overlooked. Accordingly, the 
Jews in the time of Jerome interpreted 
the messenger of Jehovah there predic- 
ted, of Elijah the Tishbite, as they ex- 
plain the present verse to this day, be- 
lieving, that as the ancient prophet as- 
cended into heaven both as to body and 
soul, he is destined to reappear in the 
same upon earth before the advent of 
Messiah the Son of David. That Elijah 
here presented to view is to be understood 
ideally and not historically, and that the 
individual personally intended is John 
the Baptist, are positions the certainty 
of which is rendered indubitable by the 
repeated declarations of our Lord, When 
John denied that he was Elias, John i. 
21, he is to be understood as making the 
denial in reference to the personal sense 
of the term as employed in the question 
that had been proposed to him. The 
historical theory is entirely set aside by 
the express testimony of the angel, Luke 
i. 17, according to which all that is meant 
by Malachi is, that the forerunner of the 
Messiah was to come ‘in the spirit and 
power of Elias.” Like that prophet, he 
was to be endowed with extraordinary 


+ 


Cuap. IV. 


MALACHI. 


457 


Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come : 
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 


power and energy, to fit him for the great 
work of reformation which his ministry 
was designed to effect. Adverting to the 
erroneous Jewish notion, which even then 
obtained, relative to the appearance of 
Elijah in person, our Lord says of John, 
‘< If ye will receive it, adrds éorw "HAlas 
6 wérAAwy %pxeoda, he is Elias who was 
to come,” Matt. xi. 17. And when the 
disciples asked him, «* Why do the Scribes 
then say that Elias must first come? he 
replied, Elias shall, indeed, first come 
and restore all things. But I say unto 
you that HAlas 78n 7ASe, Elias ts already 
come, and they knew him not, but have 
done unto him whatsoever they listed.” 
Matt. xvii. 10—13. Upon the circum- 
stance that our Lord uses the future 
tense, %pxerai, shall come, some Chris- 
tian interpreters have attempted to estab- 
lish the hypothesis, that the prophecy is 
still to be fulfilled before his second ad- 
vent; but he is obviously speaking in 
the style of language employed by the 
prophet, to whom the event was future, 
and in adaptation to the opinion of the 
Scribes, though he immediately corrects 
what was erroneous in their notion, de- 
claring that the event was no longer 
future, but had actually taken place in 
the person and ministry of John. It is 
truly surprising that any should persist 
in giving to the prophecy an aspect still 
future, in the very face of an exposition 
at once positive and infallible. That 
John the Baptist was x22, @ prophet, 
Christ admits, though he at the same 
time declares, that he was “‘ more than 
a prophet.” Matt: xi. 9. The “great 
and terrible day of Jehovah’’ was the 
dreadful period of his judgment, effecting 
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Ro- 
mans. Comp. Joel ii. 31. 

6. The design of the ministry of John 
is described as consisting in the produc- 
tion of universal peace and concord, 
Family feuds had increased to an enor- 


58 


mous extent by the time of John the 
Baptist, the removal of which by genu- 
ine repentance and reformation of con- 
duct might be taken as a specimen of the 
aroxatdoracis, or restoration of things 
to a better state throughout Judea. 
Some have proposed to take the preposi- 
tion ty, 40, as equivalent to ry , with, a 
signification which it sometimes has, and 
so to explain the passage’ as simply pre- 
dicting the universality of the conver- 
sion spoken of; but such an interpreta- 
tion would introduce an intolerable tau- 
tology into the language of the prophet, 
and be at variance with the construction 
put upon it by the angel, Luke i. 17, in 
which only one member of the sentence 
isquoted. With respect to the extent of 
the effects produced by John’s ministry, 
there can be no doubt it was very great. 
Not only did immense multitudes come 
to his baptism, confessing their sins, but 
the great body of the common people 
appear to have been prepared by him 
for the labors of our blessed Lord him- 
self, and thus the foundation was laid 
for the recovery of tens of thousands 
from Judaism to the faith of the gospel, 
previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. 
See Acts xxi. 20. 

The prophecy, and with it the entire 
Old Testament, closes with the awful 
alternative—the denunciation of the 
Divine curse, to be realized in the ex- 
termination of the impenitent Jews from 
their own land. ©) signifies wéter de- 
struction, from 64h , to shut or stop up, 


exclude from common use, place under 


a ban, devote to destruction. It is one 
of the most fearful words in use among 
the Jews, and was specially applied to 
the extermination of .the Canaanites, 
whose cities were razed to the founda- 
tions, and their inhabitants utterly de- 
stroyed. Under this ban, the land of 
Palestine has lain ever since the capture 


458 MALACHI. Cuapr. IV. 


And the heart of the children to the fathers, 
Lest I come and smite the land with a curse. 


of Jerusalem; and the sufferings to incomparably more dreadful is the New 
which, in consequence, the Jews have Testament tan — ANA@EMA, MAPAN 
been subjected are truly appalling; but A@A! 1 Cor. Xvi. 22. 











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